PETG filament is a tough, durable, and flexible material ideal for printing large and flat objects.

It’s the perfect material for prints that require durability to resist impacts, with excellent chemical and water resistance.

That said, it’s important to know that PETG is incredibly adhesive. This means prints can be tricky to pry from the print bed, and it’s a poor choice for supports that you intend to remove from your finished print.

So whether PETG is right for you is going to depend entirely on the nature of your project.

In this guide, I’ll explain all of the strengths and weaknesses I’ve found in my experience using PETG, along with its ideal use cases and some tips and tricks to produce perfect prints with this filament.

After reading this guide, you’ll be getting the best possible prints using PETG and able to advise on when best to use this great material.

What is PETG Filament?

PETG is a durable copolyester (a combination). The PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate (think plastic bottles) and the G means it’s been glycol modified for extra durability.

One great thing about PETG is that it is very recyclable – so as long as the material is processed correctly, it can be repurposed fairly easily.

The flip side of that, however, is that PETG is (mostly) non-biodegradable, meaning it isn’t broken down by bacteria or living organisms. This, depending on how the plastic is being used, can be seen as a pro or a con.

PETG Characteristics

In short, PETG is a really tough material – it’s extremely durable and prints without odor. Once you’ve dialed in the correct print settings, it prints nicely too. Users report similar finish quality to PLA. 

Here are the main benefits of 3D printing with this material and common PETG filament properties:

• Very durable, it’s more flexible than PLA or ABS, but also a little softer. You’d have a hard job breaking it in half, so if an ‘unbreakable’ case or enclosure is what you need, PETG trumps pretty much everything (except, Nylon 12).
• It has very low shrinkage, and therefore no warping. Ideal for printing big stuff.
• PETG is also very strong, it’s not brittle but can be scratched more easily than ABS which is harder.
• PETG plastic makes a terrible support structure because it sticks so well. But because it sticks so well, layer adhesion is fantastic, so prints come out strong. If you are having trouble with adhesion, read our PETG adhesion guide.
• It sticks well to the print bed too, so be careful when you’re removing it after printing.
• It has great chemical resistance, along with alkali, acid, and water resistance.
• Odourless when printing.

Typically Polyethylene filament is supplied in a range of translucent colors, and prints with a nice glossy finish.

It makes it ideal for printing anything that needs to be shatterproof or translucent. Many are taking the leap from using PLA or ABS to just using PETG.

PETG has quickly become an extremely popular material due to its advanced properties, ease of printing and color range. It usually is the next step in material experimentation after PLA due to its increased temperature resistance and toughness, and it can be printed on most printers, from desktop to professional.

Compared to other popular, slightly more difficult materials to print (I’m looking at you, ABS!), PETG can provide a great solution to prints that need to be functional. It has high impact resistance, meaning it can be dropped, hit, and generally take a bit of battering without breaking. If you’re not convinced, try and break a plastic water bottle and see for yourself how durable this material truly is!

What is PETG Best for in 3D Printing?

Because of how easy PETG is to print nowadays, there aren’t many situations where we would turn down the material, but there are some solid examples of when we would say “ah yes, PETG is the one to use”.

PETG is considered food and drink safe, and is often used for waterproof parts and parts that will come into contact with food. Additionally, because of its great bed adhesion and very little warping, long and flat parts are often best 3D printed in PETG, such as mechanical parts.

Owing to PETG’s strong impact resistance, durability and density, PETG is the filament of choice for many makers creating custom parts for drone projects or other remote-controlled electronic experiments. Additionally, 3D printer parts are sometimes made from PETG, among other protective casings for electronics and motors as PETG can handle heat reasonably well.

The main argument for PETG is that it is strong and sturdy and has very low shrinkage – meaning you can print very accurate, large prints. It also has good heat and chemical resistance, making it great for the following projects: 

• Medical items 
• Engineering pieces 
• Electric cases 
• Functional items 
• Jewelry 
• Models with moving part

But we don’t recommend printing everything with it, due to its flexibility (which isn’t always desirable, depending on your application).

What’s PETG’s Glass Transition Temperature?

PETG has a glass transition temperature of 80°C – so that’s worth taking into consideration when deciding what material to make your next project out of. This is significantly lower than ABS’s Tg of 105°C, but higher than PLA which is as low as 55°C.

Below is one of our customer’s applications, which is a bumper for his micro quadcopter. As you can imagine, the bumper needs reasonable stiffness to resist impacts, but yet plenty of durability to absorb the force of any severe crashes.

We think this is a perfect example of the types of prints you may wish to print with this material. Essentially, it’s a great addition to your existing 3D printing filament arsenal. 

Here are a few data stats about PETG:

• Density of 1.27g/cc, that’s just higher than PLA and about 20% denser than ABS.
• Rockwell hardness of R 106, which is pretty high for PETG. (Our ABS, which is very hard, is rated R 110.)

Now you know why you’re likely to go for PET-G filament vs the more traditional materials. It’s nice to print with and produces excellently tough prints that will last.

Let’s look at how to get the best results from this underutilized filament, so that you can spend the least amount of time setting up, and more time producing ultra-durable high-use prototypes, models, or end-use parts.

Here’s How to 3D Print PETG

As with all 3D printing materials, you need to take note of the specific traits that material adheres to – which issues are caused by what?

This always saves head-scratching time when you run a material through your printer the first time, and the results aren’t quite what you expected.

This plastic is just like any other, you just need to adhere to the few best practices when printing and you’ll love the results.

Sometimes PET-G can take a little more setting up, fine tuning those filament settings. It’s just slightly more particular than something more forgiving, like PLA. That’s not to say it’s hard to use, just perhaps a little more patience with the setup. 

But once you’re set up correctly, you’ll find printing with PETG a dream. No warp, odorless printing and great layer adhesion are just some of the excellent properties with printing this filament.

Be sure to use a high-quality polyethylene filament and it’s likely you’ll just dial in your PETG temperature settings and you’ll be away.

However, as with any filaments there are some pointers to make the new transition easier.

Let’s look at how to get setup correctly, issues to look out for and our top PETG printing tips that’ll save you time troubleshooting.

PETG 3D Print Settings

PETG Temperature Settings

We recommend printing PETG settings at roughly 220°C-245°C depending on your extruder. The PETG bed temperature works best around 70-75°C, a few degrees hotter perhaps for those first few layers.

What’s the Best Surface to Print PETG on?

In our experience, blue painter’s tape works the best for 3D printing PETG. A very old method of print surface but, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

PETG generally has no trouble sticking to your print surfaces. It can be a bit of a pain when it comes to bed adhesion – but not in the way that you may think! On standard surfaces, the material can stick TOO well! Removing your prints then becomes a tricky game of applying enough force to get the print off but not too much so that it ruins the print surface, or worse, the printer itself.

PETG Retraction Settings

This material doesn’t need to be squeezed onto your heated bed, you want to leave a slightly larger gap on the Z-axis to allow more room for the plastic to lay down.

If the extruder nozzle is too close to the bed, or the previous layer, it will skim and create stringing on your PETG and build-up around your nozzle. We recommend starting off moving your nozzle away from the bed in 0.02mm increments, until there is no skimming when printing.

PETG Fan Settings

When setting your print cooling fan, the general rule is: the less fan, the better the layers bond and the higher the strength – but the worse the finish will be due to stringing and poor overhang printing.

The more fan, the weaker the bond (it will still be good just not great) but the better the finish on perimeters, top surfaces and overhangs.

A good compromise is a range between 30% and 60% fan speed. If you have a part that has lots of bridging sections, it is recommended to have a higher fan percentage, for these sections, so you do not allow the molten material to sag too much before cooling. This is easy to set up as most slicers enable you to set a fan speed override for bridges.

This is the sort of thing you may choose different fan settings for different prints – so that you’re set up optimally for what you wanted to print. Experiment to get a good idea for how the filament reacts with your printer’s fan settings. 

PETG Print Speed Settings

As with a lot of materials, PETG likes to be printed slow. Printing slower than 60mm/s is recommended to give PETG time to bond with previous layers and cool sufficiently in overhangs and bridged sections. If you print faster, quality and structural integrity may be compromised.

General Best Practices

One downside of printing with PETG is that it can end up gathering wayward pieces of filament during the printing process and can build these up to form little clumps of molten material.

These little clumps can then be deposited on your print in unexpected places which will at best ruin the overall finish of your print, or at worst, disrupt your print, cause collisions or ruin dimensionally-critical areas.

Fortunately, there are a few methods to avoid or reduce these imperfection:

• Increase retraction to reduce stringing and leaking material
• Enable the “wipe” setting
• Under-extrude slightly, but not by a huge amount. 0.1-0.2% is a good starting point(this will also help with stringing)
• Increase cooling fan speed (but as mentioned earlier, this does come at a cost of lower strength)

It’s likely you won’t have issues with all of these points, but as you can see – just like other 3D printing filaments, each material has its own set of traits to set up for.

Once you know the cause of each issue, and how to fix you’ll find the printing consistent time and time over.

Best PETG Filament

For every day, entry level 3D printer hobbyists who want to experiment and have fun, basic low-cost PETG will suffice. Those looking to make high quality parts with rapid prototyping may instead be drawn towards industrial 3D printer PETG filament, costing more.

• Matterhackers USA PETG filament range
• Matterhackers USA PRO Series PETG
• 3DJake UK & Europe PETG range

Here’s a Quick Rundown of PETG vs ABS:

• PETG is more durable than ABS, but ABS is harder, and more rigid. 
• PETG glass transition temperature is lower, at 80C compared with ABS’s 105C
• ABS is approximately 20% less dense than PETG.
• PETG won’t warp like ABS might (if printed incorrectly) and is generally odourless. 
• PETG is more chemically resistant, and so cannot be acetone smoothed like ABS. 

Read more: PETG vs ABS – in-depth comparison

Here’s a Quick Rundown of PETG vs PLA:

• PLA filament strength is more brittle than PETG, unless you want to try to anneal it. 
• PLA and PETG have very similar densities. 
• PETG will need a heated bed, whereas PLA can be printed cold. 
• Layer adhesion with PETG is typically unmatched, leaving very strong and durable prints. 
• PLA prints supports easily to remove, whereas these are harder (but not impossible) to remove with PETG. 

Read more: PETG vs PLA – filaments compared

TOP TIP: If you switch back and forth between PLA and PETG on your printer, beware that a nozzle that’s contaminated with PLA will not print PETG well – the PLA will interfere with bonding and the layers of PETG won’t stick together. If your PETG prints start out weak and crumbly for the first few layers and then become solid and strong for the rest of the print, contamination is the likely cause. To avoid this, when switching from PLA to PETG make sure you purge the nozzle with enough PETG to get rid of every last remnant of PLA from the printer’s hotend. It’s also a good idea to use a brim, skirt or raft so those risky first few lines aren’t part of your final prints.

How to Store PETG

PETG is slightly hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs small amounts of moisture from the air which worsens the print quality of PETG parts over time, making them more brittle and bubbly. It is recommended to keep all filament in a good filament storage container or other protector, or at least in a dry part of the room.

You can also dry “wet” PETG with a filament dryer. This helps remove most of the moisture and avoids most of the downsides that occur if you leave filament out for too long.

We recommend the following products:

• PrintDry Filament Drying System — dries wet filament, improving part quality
• PolyMaker Filament Storage Box II — for good storage and safe printing

Read more: best 3D printer filament storage

Advantages and Disadvantages of PETG

Advantages of PETG Filament

• Great middle-ground between PLA and ABS: PETG is stronger and can handle higher temperatures than PLA, while warping less than ABS.
• Excellent layer adhesion without much warping: PETG’s stickiness gives it great adhesion to the print bed, leading to strong, durable parts. This makes PETG a great option for long and thin parts that are very difficult to print using filaments like ABS.
• Good surface finish: PETG prints come out glittery and glossy, with a translucent, radiant finish. Though not to everyone’s tastes, many enjoy the finish they get from PETG 3D printing.
• Odorless: unlike ABS, PETG does not create bad smells from fumes while 3D printing.
• Many color options: like ABS and PLA, there are many options to choose from with PETG, so you’ll never struggle to find the blend you want for a particular project.

Disadvantages of PETG filament

• Poor for supports or bridges: the excellent layer adhesion comes at a cost: PETG supports can stick too well, creating difficult-to-remove supports that can leave marks on the part. If you have a dual extruder 3D printer, consider printing a different support material like PLA that is easier to remove.
• Can string, worsening surface finish: make sure to fix your retraction settings as otherwise strings or hairs can affect the surface finish of your prints, and are generally annoying. Research good 3D slicer settings for your desired results.
• Bad scratch resistance compared with ABS: the glycol that enhances PETG from PET in so many ways makes it less scratch resistant, so over time parts can wear down and look less aesthetically pleasing.
• Difficult post-processing: the chemical resistance is also an advantage, but means PETG can’t be acetone polished like ABS can for a better surface finish. PETG’s natural glossy finish means this isn’t a big downside however, and it can still be sanded.

PETG Frequently Asked Questions

Related articles:

• Best Glues For PETG (Gluing PETG Parts)
• PLA filament guide
• ABS filament guide
• PLA vs PETG
• ABS vs PETG
• PLA, ABS, and PETG shrinkage: Everything you need to know

It also predicted that the largest threat to this growth wasn’t external, instead explaining that the “high cost of the customized orthotic devices are expected to restrain the market growth.”

However, since the report’s publication, 3D printing has inserted itself further into the custom orthotics industry.

The result: cheaper, faster, and in some cases more effective orthotics treatments. So, with that in mind, here are three exciting ways that 3D printing is changing the orthotics industry.

1. 3D Printed Orthotic Insoles

Shoe insoles are perhaps the best-known type of orthotic. Over-the-counter insoles are used to treat common podiatry issues such as flat feet. However, there is a growing market for custom insoles.

Going custom ensures the most effective treatment and comfortable fit possible. Although this is overkill for most patients, going custom can be useful for patients with severe issues, or for athletes who may have mild issues but regularly put large amounts of force through their feet.  

Custom insoles are usually produced with a plaster impression of the patient’s feet. This is used to hand-make the required insole, ensuring that it meets the patient’s prescription, and fits perfectly.

Unfortunately, custom insoles are expensive, making them inaccessible for some patients. A pair of over-the-counter insoles rarely cost more than $50, whilst custom pairs can run from $200-$800, with additional costs for consultations and medical fees.

SLS 3D Printing of Insoles

Although not every podiatrist will have them available, 3D printed insoles have grown in both popularity and availability. 

Usually, the medical assessment stage is identical, with dimensions of the patient’s feet taken with a 3D scanner or manually. However, instead of the insole being hand-made, it is uploaded onto 3D sculpting software before being 3D printed.

The resulting insoles perform indiscernibly from hand-made ones. To achieve this, most manufacturers use Selective Laser Sintering instead of FDM machines.

When describing their process, Phits, a manufacturer, explained that:

“[FDM was] completely inadequate for producing insoles because it is too slow, lacks accuracy, and most of all it doesn’t provide the necessary strength… We use a much more advanced technology called Selective Laser Sintering. During this process, a very fine powder (we use PA or Nylon) is hardened and bonded together layer by layer. The result is a very light, very strong final product.”

This sentiment isn’t just held by the manufacturers, with medical professionals also agreeing that SLS is really the only effective way to 3D print orthotic insoles.

Mark Ireland is a practicing podiatrist with his own Australian-based clinic. Whilst experimenting with 3D printing custom orthotics, he explained that:

“we quickly realized the FDM parts did not possess the mechanical strength we required from our products…  We also trialed SLA but unfortunately faced the same outcome… Our parts need to have a high degree of accuracy and can involve complex shapes… They also need to have some flexibility without shattering… Furthermore, a low moisture absorption is also key due to the environment such orthoses are commonly used in. According to Mark, the selective laser sintering process is one of the few additive technologies that could meet these demands.”

Replacing the conventional method?

The efficiency of 3D printing allows patients to receive their insoles faster. Additionally, manufacturers are able to produce their orthotics with the same level of accuracy, but with less material waste and working hours.

Unfortunately, these savings haven’t made 3D printed insoles significantly cheaper. As an example, the Blackberry Clinic in the UK charges £3260 for a pair of Phits orthotics.

Despite being 3D printed, this pricing matches up to be perfectly average for the custom orthotic insoles market.

Exactly why the improved production process hasn’t also reduced costs isn’t clear, but the future of 3D printed insoles remains promising. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be any significant obstacles against its continued use, with the technology poised to entirely replace the conventional method in the near future. 

2. 3D Printed orthotic casts

3D printed orthotic casts are perhaps the most visibly striking item on our list. But they’re not all glitz and glamor, with their design offering significant advantages over their plaster counterparts in almost every way.

When someone fractures a bone, it must be immobilized to ensure that it heals in the correct position. Some patients will be given a temporary splint at the site of their accident, but almost all patients will need to visit the ER as soon as possible to get a cast fitted.

Read more: our feature story on 3D printed casts

Provided that surgery isn’t required, the patient will be fitted with a plaster cast at the ER. Interestingly, the nature of treating fractures means that 3D printed casts are unlikely to ever replace this step. Fractures are medical emergencies and notoriously painful. If left untreated for even a day, the potentially misplaced and sharp bone can cause further injury, and even life-threatening internal bleeding.

As plaster can be applied immediately, it is perfectly suited to deal with this emergency – whereas a 3D printed cast would require hours to scan, design and finally print. During this time, the patient’s fracture would be left untreated.

However, after their initial cast, patients can almost always expect to get additional casts made, including 3D printed ones.

Replacement 3D Printed Casts

As the fracture heals, their doctors will have to regularly cut off their casts and make new ones. This is done to visually check on the fracture, ensuring that it’s free of infection and is healing properly.

Additionally, immobilized limbs will always become smaller over time, requiring new smaller casts to be made. This is because the swelling caused by the injury reduces over time, and because of the unused limb’s muscle atrophy.

Describing the process, Dr. Arun Sayal of the North York General Hospital in Toronto explained that:

“If the fracture starts to heal normally, you might be moved into a fiberglass cast… It’s a little harder to mold fiberglass, so often the emergency department will use plaster.”

These synthetic casts are so popular because they’re waterproof, allowing the patient to bathe normally.

But what about that 3D printed option?

Active Armor Casts 

Active Armor offers a range of custom 3D printed casts. As a medical device, a doctor’s prescription and agreeable insurance is needed to begin treatment.

Like all rigid casts, Active Armor cannot be used early in treatment. Instead, they are usually fitted once most of the patient’s swelling has gone. Although muscle atrophy will continue, it usually isn’t enough to make these rigid casts ineffective.

The process begins with the removal of the plaster cast and a scan of the injured limb. The doctor will verify the scan with a physical measurement, then the scan will be sent to a printer. The patient will get another plaster cast in the interim.

Once the manufacturer has printed and shipped the cast, it will be attached for the first time by the doctor, where they will do a final check to ensure that it has an effective and snug fit.

These 3D printed casts are significantly more comfortable than plaster ones. Their design leaves plenty of skin exposed. This is useful for doctors to observe the fracture healing, and also allows the patient to actually scratch their itchy skin. This also avoids the notorious smell that can arise from wearing waterproof casts for too long.

Read more: our feature story on 3D printing in medical

Additionally, 3D printed casts can be completely removed by the patient whenever they wish. In practice, there is little reason to do this whilst they are nursing a serious injury.

However, it does allow for more flexibility with washing, massaging muscles, cleaning the inside of their cast, and just allowing their skin to air.

Limb Shrinkage?

3D printed casts are expensive, or are at least far more expensive than the comparatively disposable price of plaster casts. This becomes an issue when reminded that muscle atrophy will continue as the fracture heals.

Unlike plaster casts, 3D printed casts cannot be cheaply cut off and remolded. To combat this, most patients are advised to apply tape to the inside of their cast whenever an area becomes loose.

But aside from this, they’ll just have to hope that their fracture heals before their injured limb shrinks too much.  

3. HeadStart Medical and Orthotic helmets

Despite looking like toddler-sized crash helmets, these are actually specialized orthotics.

Plagiocephaly, also known as “flat head syndrome,” occurs in about 1 in 5 infants.  The condition is caused by infants laying or sleep in one position for too long, causing their soft skulls to become misshapen. This condition usually resolves itself over time, however parents may decide to explore orthotic treatment.

An orthotic plagiocephaly helmet, similar to oral braces, gently forces the infant’s head into a symmetrical shape, ensuring that it fuses correctly.

Conventionally, these helmets are all custom-made using measurements of the baby’s head.

However, 3D printing the helmets makes the production process faster and cheaper – but most importantly, 3D printing results in much lighter helmets. This reduced weight allows treatment to begin earlier, as the children’s head and neck don’t need to be as strong yet. 

Starting earlier allows the treatment to be more effective, potentially reducing the impact of Plagiocephaly on an international scale.

However, despite the merits on display here, the treatment itself has come under criticism.    

A Treatment Under Fire

The process can be invasive, with babies younger than six months having to wear the helmets for 23 hours every day. Additionally, as the babies grow, they’ll require regular doctor’s visits to shave down the orthotic. Predictably, this growth and constant rubbing usually result in moderate to severe rashes.

But perhaps the most damning criticism comes from the fact that it is unclear whether orthotic helmets actually work!

However, there is no clear government-led evidence suggesting that these helmets correct Plagiocephaly.

With the treatment usually costing over $1000 for the initial helmet, and then more for follow-up consultations, some may see it as a large investment for a condition that may resolve itself over time.

And not without cause. With the rapidly advancing and naturally competitive industry of military-technology, these innovations are already showing signs of being on the horizon.

However, we’re still a way off from anything out of science-fiction. Instead, and much like many large manufacturers, most international militaries are currently experimenting with 3D printing as a way to improve the cost and efficiency of manufacturing equipment and buildings.

But that doesn’t mean that the industry is lacking in exciting projects. Indeed, military operations naturally demand a high degree of reliability and effectiveness from their equipment.

This means that militaries are generally more willing to invest time and money into 3D printing research than civilian sectors.

So, with that in mind, here are four ways that the military is using 3D printing today.

3D Printing and Military Logistics – The British Army

A common issue for foreign military deployments is that of supply. Whenever a deployment is stationed abroad and cannot supply itself locally, then it must rely on logistics from home.

This is especially true for deployments in hostile environments, or combat operations, where sourcing supplies locally presents an additional risk.

This is hardly a new issue, with foreign invasions from antiquity facing the same problem. Today, most modern militaries possess large and effective combat logistics networks to solve this very issue.

But that is just half of the problem. The other issue with supplying an army from home, is that it has always been incredibly expensive.

Although it’s not promising to remove the issue, the British Army has been experimenting with 3D printing as a way to reduce this financial impact.

The British Army in South Sudan

The British army is currently deployed alongside a UN peacekeeping operation in South Sudan.  Speaking about the situation in 2018, a spokesperson for the Royal Engineers explained that:

“engineering in South Sudan has faced many problems. A stretched and fragile logistical supply route has resulted in difficulties resourcing components. However, we have resolved some of these issues through the use of a 3D printer. This is the first time this technology has been used by UK land forces deployed on operations. With a production time of often less than 12 hours, resources which would normally take weeks to be shipped or flown into country can now be printed on demand with significantly reduced costs.”

During the deployment, a UN hospital was to be erected in the city of Bentiu:

“In order to complete construction we are using the 3D printer to manufacture essential small parts, the lack of which was previously hindering the progress of the build.”

Although perhaps not the most exciting use of 3D printing on this list, this example does demonstrate the growing use of the technology within the armed forces, as well as how it is tangibly benefitting operations today.

The 3D printed “Submarine” – US Navy

Moving onto what is perhaps a more visually striking project, let’s talk about the US Navy’s 3D printed submersible.

Navy SEALS (Sea, Air, and Land) are the world-renowned special operations soldiers of the US Navy. To achieve the “sea” component of their designation, they routinely utilize specialized submersible vehicles to deploy on operations.

Currently, this is done with the SDV (SEAL delivery vehicle) submersible. These submersibles can covertly deploy soldiers to both land and sea targets. The current model, the Mark 8 SDV, has been in operational use since 1983.

However, like a lot of specialized military hardware, production of these SDVs is often takes a lot of time and money.  The US Department of Energy states that “the cost of a traditional hull ranges from $600,000 to $800,000, and typically takes 3-5 months to manufacture.”

This price tag skyrockets when considering additional costs; technical and logistical support, engineering, and training for example. Indeed, when the UK was approved to purchase three vehicles in 2018, the official estimated program cost came to $90 million!

So, what happens to that number when you 3D print the SDVs instead?

The 3D Printed Seal Delivery Vehicle

In 2017 the Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with the US Navy to 3D print an SDV hull. Using large-format 3D printers, they created a concept hull out of six carbon-fiber composite sections.

This concept became the first 3D printed submersible hull ever produced by a world military. But perhaps the most notable finding from this prototype was its efficiency. The hull took only weeks to print, rather than months, and was 90% cheaper to produce.

This efficiency also opens up more operational uses for the vehicles. Could 3D printed SDVs be tailor-made for each operation? Could they even be treated as disposable insertion vehicles? 

These questions were tangible enough for the Navy to approve the project for further testing, with the initial aim being that fleet-capable prototypes could be introduced as early as 2019… This may have been optimistic however, as no significant updates on the project have been released since.

Instead, the US Navy have revealed that the Mark 8 SDV will be replaced by a newer non-3D printed model, the SWCS (Shallow Water Combat Submersible).

Read more: our feature story on 3D printed boats

So, It’s Not a Submarine?

Interestingly, and as an aside, despite being commonly referred to as submarines because of their appearance, this is not technically true. As the soldiers are exposed to the water whilst using their SDVs, they are technically only “swimmer delivery vehicles,” essentially beefed up and militarized underwater scooters.

The Future of the 3D Printed Submarine?

With the potential benefits it highlighted, it’s unlikely that the 3D printed submersible project has been entirely abandoned.

However, with the US committing $38.8 million to its SWCS contract, it’s also unlikely that they’ll be replaced any time soon.

So, although it’s unlikely we’ll see fully 3D printed military submarines in operation any time soon, it is now at least both a proven and desirable concept.

3D Printed Covid Swabs For The Swiss Army

Let’s look away from 3D printing’s combat potential for a moment and consider what the technology can bring to deployments on home soil. With a recent example of pushing boundaries coming from the Swiss Army’s use of 3D printing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the pandemic’s height in 2020, the world experienced an international shortage of Covid test kits, specifically, the swabs. With so many countries racing to test their populations, demand for the swabs quickly outpaced manufacture.

Switzerland, concerned by the shortage, and the prospect on being totally reliant on international supply lines, turned to its Army to develop an in-house solution.

Designing the Swabs

However, this wouldn’t be a simple case of 3D printing an existing design. Medical swabs of this type, (nasopharyngeal swabs) need to be long, strong, flexible, and feature a bristled section, with an intentionally weak section that allows the bristled end to break off.

Whilst converting all these attributes to a 3D printable medium was certainly possible, it would be quite the undertaking to create swabs that were also mass-producible, and able to stand up to the scrutiny of clinical testing.

To achieve this, the Surgeon General of the Swiss Armed forces partnered with medical technology company GobiX GmbH, creating a multi-disciplined team to develop a new swab design.

The team experimented with 3D printing the swabs. They used non-toxic resin and had to ensure that the swabs could survive an autoclave (a sterilization machine that subjects the swabs to lots of heat and pressure).

The team began testing with a selection of Formlabs resin 3D printers, specifically the Form 2 and 3. They quickly found success, with 3D printing allowing them to produce swabs quickly.

Indeed, similar testing in Spain using the same 3D printers were able to print 650 swabs every 24 hours.

Soon after Switzerland’s design was completed, the swabs also passed their clinical testing, becoming CE-Certified and fit for medical distribution.

Once distribution began nationwide, Switzerland became one of the first European countries able to fill their own demand for Covid swabs independently.

The Concrete Barracks Race – US Armed Forces

Over the past 5 years the US military has been experimenting with 3D printing concrete as a way to construct buildings rapidly and economically.

In 2017 the Army constructed a 3D printed B-Hut (type of barracks) in a Champaign Illinois research laboratory. The project demonstrated the potential efficiency of the technology, with each hut using half the shipped materials and 62% less manpower than the conventional plywood design.

In 2018, the Marine Corps printed another prototype barracks in the same Illinois facility. At the time it became the “largest continuous 3D concrete print of a building in the western hemisphere.”

Although the building never became operational, the Marine Corps still has faith in the merits of continued research.

Speaking about the project, Captain Matthew Friedell stated that:

“traditionally we build houses, schools, and homes where a natural disaster has happened… If we can just set up a machine, we can guarantee quality, consistency, and ideally we can just leave the machine there to start rebuilding those communities.”  

Despite their strides however, neither force would be the first to complete and use a functional 3D printed barracks. Both would be beaten to the punch by the Texas Military Department.

Everything’s Bigger in Texas

Rather than being controlled by the national government, the Texas Military Department serves as an armed force of the Texas government itself. As such, its Adjutant General is even appointed by and reports to the Governor of Texas.

Their involvement with 3D printing came when they partnered with construction company ICON to build a new and innovative barracks for one of their military training centers. 

Located in the Swift Training Centre in Bastrop Texas, the building became the largest 3D printed structure in North America.

With the completed project only being unveiled this month, this barracks is not only the newest project on this list, but it’s also currently the first and only 3D printed barracks currently in operation.

Evan Loomis, the CEO of ICON, explained how the structure was bult. “We have a foundation, the printer shows up, and it begins printing almost like a layer of cake…  And so, you print up to the very top of the wall, and then you put on the roof in the traditional way.  And you’re able to do it with just incredible speed.”

In this way, the Texas Military Department were able to take what had had up until now been prototypes and exciting concepts, and actually put them to use for the first time.

Being such a new development, it’s unclear how the soldiers using this facility feel it compares to a traditional barracks, but it still serves as an exciting prospect for the technology’s continued use. 

So, if these developments are meant to be just around the corner, then how is 3D being used in the industry now?

The Oil and Gas Industry 

The oil and gas industries are perhaps best known for the massive scale of their engineering, both in terms of size and cost. Power plants, drilling operations, and offshore oil rigs represent enormous amounts of money, assets, and people, to both manage and keep safe.

Adding to this, the industry can be volatile. Oil is a highly political and controversial commodity – many want to see it replaced by greener and more environmentally friendly options – and its price can fluctuate unpredictably due to international policies.

More relevant for us, however, are issues that arise from these power stations and oil rigs themselves. If anything goes wrong, or production is slowed or halted in any of these installations, then the downtime cost could hurt the company’s wallet dearly.

Because of this, any innovation that can improve reliability and safety is given significant amounts of research and attention here. To this end, it’s unsurprising that 3D printing has continued to see more and more integration across the oil and gas industry. 

And the implications here aren’t subtle. As you’re about to see, 3D printing could radically change and improve upon many of the ways this industry does business.

1. Spare and Repairs

Using 3D printing to produce spare parts is hardly new. One of the first things most industries will experiment with is whether existing parts can be produced more efficiently with 3D printing. However, in the case of oil and gas, it’s worth explaining just how important it is to be well stocked with spare parts.

Running Costs

Large energy installations are incredibly expensive. Not only in terms of the cost of building, but also just the cost of operation.

For example, the industry publication “Reservoir Exploration and Appraisal 2013,” found that an oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico can cost up to $800,000 to operate per day and take up to 150 days to fully complete excavate a well.

And this is just for an exploratory well. Additional installations and operations are needed to actually extract the oil, assuming that is, that the exploratory well actually finds any.

So, any malfunction in an installation, even for a day, can be incredibly expensive. This is amplified if the delay also impedes the rest of the extraction process.

Remoteness

Additionally, oil and gas installations commonly suffer from being installed in remote locations. Obviously, off-shore facilities are understandably remote, but even on-shore installations can be affected. Indeed, many energy-producing facilities are purposely built apart from urban or residential areas.

This remoteness means that even with good supply networks, getting equipment to sites can be slow. This is a problem considering that if a vital component fails, and spares aren’t on hand, then that facility will remain offline and generating costs until a replacement arrives.

The traditional method

The solution to this would seemingly be to just ensure that each facility is well stocked with spare parts, however that strategy comes with its own problems too, problems that 3D printing has offered a solution to. But before introducing the 3D printed method, let’s explore the problems it’s going to be solving.

In terms of cost, having a large collection of spare parts is useful, but expensive. It is also a very physically expensive solution. A large amount of space has to be reserved for storing spare parts that may never be needed. 

Additionally, there remains the problem of moving these parts to where they are needed. Unless a facility happens to have a part on hand, then even if their company owns a replacement, it still needs to be moved to that location. And again, during this downtime the installation will be costing money.

3D Printing Spare Parts

What 3D printing offers is the ability to produce these components on demand. Using industrial 3D printers and metal 3D printing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) means that many installation components can be replicated. 

In this way both issues are mitigated. Spares won’t need to be hoarded, and printing on-location means that parts simply won’t need to travel. Although not all components can currently be 3D printed, the list of available parts continues to grow.

Shell in Nigeria

An example of this approach in action came during Shell’s offshore operations in Nigeria. On their website, the energy company explained that a polymer seal covering on a mooring buoy needed to be replaced. However, the part was simply no longer in production.

Additionally, simply replacing the entire unit wasn’t an option either. The seal itself was part of a larger assembly, and would require complex, dangerous, and expensive heavy lifting to entirely replace.

So, instead, they tried a new approach. They explained that “the Nigerian team modelled the component with a 3D scanner from a local supplier… 3D printing reduced the final cost of the maintenance by 90% compared to a conventional replacement and it took merely 2 weeks to produce the parts.”

Could there be a more explicit case for 3D printing your spare parts on demand? But we must move on. So, moving away from simply recreating existing components, what else has 3D printing done for the industry?

2. Next Generation of Scale Models

Rapid prototyping is again another very common application of 3D printing, with the technology routinely used in the research and development process of many large industries. However, here, the process has also established itself as a way of significantly improving safety.

Let’s use miniaturized prototype models as an example. Although an increasingly common technique, the scale and complexity of oil and gas projects makes these 3D printed models especially valuable. Considering how expensive these installations are, and how dangerous construction accidents can be, it’s worth ensuring that they’re built right first time.

Read more: best 3D printers for miniatures

Whilst documenting the assembly of another buoy installation, Shell released a video discussing the benefits of these 3D printed models over conventional alternatives.

Traditionally, a 2D drawing was used to describe the installation. However, with the buoy being comprised of over 222 heavy foam blocks that had to be assembled in a specific sequence, there was perhaps room for an improved method.

“What we have done is we’ve actually used a 3D printer, and we created the model in 3D of the structure, and then a model of all 222 components of the foam blocks, so that we could then plan it, and make sure the sequence was right to ensure that we did it safely… Having a model like this in the design process really bridges the gap between design and fabrication. It’s already added value in understanding whether the dimensions are correct, and whether we have clashes or not. It’s a great tool to be able to plan the work, execute it, and anticipate the problems, and come up with a workaround before the process even starts.”

3. Novel Production

So far, we’ve seen how 3D printing is being used to support existing processes. But an emerging use of the technology is in novel production.

Rather than simply replicating a component with a 3D printer, Novel design studies instead redesign components to make them more effective. This practice is common within aerospace, where parts are continually redesigned using 3D printers in an attempt to make them lighter and stronger.

Although the use of 3D printing in these studies is not universal, the technology has already replaced and improved several oil and gas installation components.  

APS Technology & EOS

One such tale of success came in 2018 with electromechanical manufacturer APS technology.

One of the products offered by APS are well drillers. These machines are used to cut boreholes through miles of rock, to eventually create oil wells. The machines are complex, with various systems installed to allow the drills to be literally steered onto the best path through the rock. 

Additionally, the nature of their work means that they must withstand significant abuse. In their report, APS revealed that:

“aside from the obvious difficulties involved in cutting rock hundreds of feet under the earth, the pressurized fluid used to cool the drill head and flush away cuttings is highly abrasive, and rushes past very fast. This can wreak havoc not only on the down-hole systems, but also on many other types of drilling equipment, even destroying super tough Inconel and 17-4 stainless steel.”

Seeing these challenges as areas to improve in their design, APS began developing various ways of reducing the wear on their products. This prompted their experimentation with using 3D printing to upgrade their components.

The 3D Printed Drill

APS partnered with industrial 3D printing company EOS, where they used their DMLS 3D printers to print various components out of durable metal powders. As these new components were also made of stainless steel or Inconel, they are just as durable as conventionally built ones.

But by using 3D printing, APS was able to “build long-lasting parts in a short space of time… Create complex geometries that could not previously be manufactured,” and “parts that are far more space-efficient than their traditionally machined counterparts.”

So, although these new 3D printed components failed to be significantly more durable, they didn’t need to be. Instead, they were cheaper, simpler to assemble, and as we covered in an earlier point, could simply be re-printed and replaced on demand once worn out. 

APS released what they felt were the results of their collaboration:

“By using EOS technology, APS has reduced the part count in a drilling assembly from four separate components to just one. DMLS is also creating cost savings in the company’s extensive machine shop, where jigs and fixtures that once took days or even weeks to machine can now be printed, unattended, overnight. Aside from the advantages APS has seen in part-count reduction and novel component shapes, designers are finding that product development cycles are substantially shorter.”

The Future of 3D Printing Within Oil and Gas

Seemingly, the industry seems to be mostly experimenting with how 3D printing can make their installations more autonomous. This makes sense too, after all, having to support remote facilities has been an unavoidable hurdle for the industry. Until now at least.

Using 3D printing to produce spare parts and develop new prototypes is helpful. But what about the next step for novel designs? What happens when instead of some components being made on-demand, all of them were?

Moving into speculation, it’s feasible that the continued use of 3D printing could lead to entirely autonomous facilities. Imagine a system where instead of relying on extensive supply lines, each installation is instead only supplied with raw materials, which it then uses to 3D print its own components on-demand. 

Rather than expensive and helicopter-reliant oil rigs, could the future see fleets of giant self-sustaining oil extracting robots? 

Well, perhaps that is going too far. But what is certain is that the immediate future is likely to see 3D printing become the dominant way new novel designs and components are produced across the industry. 

But which filament is best for you?

What is 3D printer filament?

Filaments come on spools, making them easy to feed into your 3D printer. Filaments are plastic materials in spaghetti-like strands that are melted and extruded onto your printer’s print bed to make your 3D model according to the specs you chose in your 3D software.

3D Printer Filament Types

There are two main types:

• 1.75mm filament: the 1.75mm size is by far the most common, and is the smaller diameter of filament available.
• 2.85mm filament: sometimes referred to as 3mm filament, 2.85mm filament appears to be going increasingly out of fashion with makers drawn to 1.75mm filament instead. However, some printers including BCN3D Sigma printers and Ultimaker’s range of 3D printers take 2.85mm filament, including the Ultimaker 3, S3 and S5.

What is the best 3D printer filament?

Well, it depends. If you’re a beginner to 3D printing, then ABS or PLA are your best bet, with PLA considered the easiest filament to 3D print with overall. PETG is considered a good middle ground between ABS and PLA, which is explained in more detail in each 3D printer filament type section below.

If you’re looking to print crazy glow-in-the-dark, clear or conductive models, there are PLA blends with all of these attributes. PLA is considered the most versatile filament, and clear PLA filament, conductive PLA filaments and others are commonly used for specialized projects.

For those looking to print flexible parts, TPU, TPE and other flexible filaments exist for these uses. These are explained in more depth in their flexible filament section within this filament guide.

For experts looking to print with the strongest 3D printer filaments, PC, Nylon, Carbon fiber-filled, or even PEEK may be more appropriate — though tougher filaments cost more.

Cheap vs expensive filaments

PLA and ABS are the cheapest 3D printer filaments, starting at around $20 per kilo. PETG is only marginally more expensive, costing around $25 per kilo, and is more durable than PLA.

Tougher materials like Nylon start to get more expensive, while the most expensive 3D printer filaments such as PEEK filament can set you back hundreds of dollars per kilo. This is due to its strength, heat resistance and industrial use, which we’ll explain further later on.

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Hobbyist 3D Printer Filaments

PLA (Polylactic Acid)

• Temperature: 180-210°C
• Heated bed: optional at 40-60°C
• Heated chamber: not required
• Glass transition temperature: 60-65°C
• Adhesion: can use glue stick, blue painter’s tape, and more

PLA or PolyLactic Acid is the ‘go-to’ 3D filament for most makers. PLA filament is an eco-friendly biodegradable material made from cornstarch.

History:

Now probably the most widely used filament for makers worldwide, PLA is a product of the RepRap movement, with co-creator Vik Olliver discovering the material’s potential for 3D printing while trying to unearth a good filament for the first RepRap machines.

15 years later, PLA is used by millions worldwide to 3D print all types of models, and is known for being a very cheap filament as well as for being the only biodegradable filament.

3D printing tips:

It’s easy to print with because it requires some of the lowest temperature settings of any 3D printer materials and generally doesn’t warp. You’ll find PLA is also non-toxic and doesn’t smell much when printing.

Whereas 3D printer filaments like ABS and ASA are made of plastic compounds, PLA is made from renewable and biodegradable crops like corn starch. This makes PLA the undisputed eco-warrior favorite, and also means that when printing there is no foul smell or toxic fumes, unlike ABS.

Due to the purity of the raw materials used, higher quality PLA also yields better results with post-print finishing, such as sanding or drilling if required.  

If you’re not sure what material to use, and just want something easy to 3D print (it’s forgiving on your slicer settings, though it can ooze and string) with respectable strength and usability – PLA is worth trying out. 

It’s worth noting that PLA is typically brittle in comparison to most other durable filaments. If you need something just like regular PLA but more durable, or with higher temperature resistance, PLA+ could be your answer.

Unlike ABS, PLA does not require a heated bed when 3D printing filament, but we still recommend using one for the best results. You don’t need a heated chamber or enclosed build area, making it a favorite of DIY 3D printer owners that typically have open print areas.

We recommend the following PLA selections:

• PLA selections on Amazon here
• PLA filament range on Matterhackers here

There are a large range of PLA filaments available, with a huge variety in quality and strengths. Generally, it’s considered weaker than ABS – but higher quality 3D printer PLA can result in a surprising amount of finished part strength.

There are a huge number of different filament blends available. Common blends include wood filaments, as well as copper PLA and carbon fiber filament — you can even get glow-in-the-dark PLA for nighttime projects.

However, PLA melts at far lower temperatures than filaments like ABS, making PLA parts far less suited to high-temperature applications. PLA is also brittle, and if enough pressure is placed on a PLA part it can snap. It can’t be acetone-smoothed like ABS, though it is very easy to paint your finished parts, and gluing multiple PLA parts together is also no problem.

Read our full guide: PLA 3D printer filament guide

Best filaments: Best PLA filaments

ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)

• Temperature: 230-250°C
• Heated bed: required, recommended temperature 90-110°C
• Heated chamber: highly advised
• Glass transition temperature: around 105°C
• Adhesion: glue stick, blue painter’s tape and others

Perhaps the second most commonly used filament is ABS (or Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene on Sundays) – it’s a common plastic used in a lot of casings and consumer products that require a durable material. Your phone case or keyboard is likely made from, or has some components in ABS. 

Good ABS filament is stronger than good PLA (and considerably stronger than cheaper varieties) and has a higher temperature resistance (it won’t go soft in a hot car on a sunny day) but takes a little more care when printing. Cheaper ABS can be crumbly or inconsistent to print.

As well as being one of the most widely used 3D printer filaments, it’s also one of the most versatile, available in many different colors and sizes — you can even buy clear ABS to paint after printing. ABS also has good heat resistance, with a glass transition temperature of around 105C — far higher than filaments like PLA (60-65C).

It is also cheap, costing around $20 per kilo, and as a result is commonly used for rapid prototyping.

3D printing tips:

This is because it has a tendency to warp if your heated bed is not hot enough (as it contracts when cooling), and requires a hotter extruder temperature. However, once your ABS plastic filament settings are tuned in and everything is at the correct temp – printing it is no harder than any other material. 

This material can also be smoothed with acetone. This means you can make it look more like a non-3D print, but that’s usually at a cost to detail.

As with all 3D printing filaments, it’s extremely important to only print in a well-ventilated area. ABS is no different. The very process of printing can release microparticles into the air during the heating and extruding process – so always read the guidelines from your printer’s manufacturer.

ABS filament requires a heated bed, and preferably a heated chamber — so RepRap 3D printers and 3D printer kits may struggle. Without a heated chamber ABS may warp and pull upward at the corners, and the midsection may even crack if the warping pulls two areas apart. It can also smell bad when printing, with pungent odors that can cause nausea — so it is best to 3D print ABS filament in a room you don’t need to use.

Is ABS filament transparent?

Not naturally, like PLA and some other materials (see below) but we do a modified ABS that is, also it prints more translucent unless you acetone smooth. 

• We also have a full, in-depth guide dedicated to ABS filament.

We recommend the following ABS selections:

• ABS filament selection on Amazon here
• ABS filament range on Matterhackers here

However, for the price there aren’t any stronger filaments or more durable filaments than ABS. Nylon is tough but more expensive, and PEEK is more than 10x pricier. Therefore, ABS is perfect for anyone looking to create sturdy and high-quality parts without breaking the bank.

For more info on ABS:

• Best ABS filament and brands
• Best ABS 3D printers

PETG filament (Polyethylene Terephthalate with added Glycol)

• Temperature: 220-245°C
• Heated bed: optional but recommended, at 70-90°C
• Glass transition temperature: around 80°C
• Adhesion: blue painter’s tape and other options
• Density: 1270kg/m³

PETG is PET with added glycol in order to improve its 3D printing characteristics. PET is widely used to make water bottles as well as in injection molding, with glycol added to make it less brittle and improve impact resistance and durability.

It is effectively almost unbreakable – layer adhesion is excellent and it will just keep bending, rather than snapping like more brittle plastics might. 

Other benefits include hardly any warp and virtually no smells when printing. It also bridges well. When printed optimally for transparency, PET is one of the clearest.

3D printing tips:

Although easy to print with, you want to make sure your PETG filament settings are dialed in properly.

The main advantages of PETG filament are that it has good impact resistance and fantastic thermal characteristics but without the problems with warping associated with ABS or brittleness associated with PLA.

For these reasons, PETG is considered a stellar third option for those deciding between PLA and ABS, and is becoming an increasingly popular filament.

Possibly the main advantage of PETG however is how great layer adhesion is during 3D printing. It’s natural stickiness makes for fantastic layer adhesion, leading to strong and durable parts that do not warp — this makes PETG one of the best 3D printer filaments for long and thin parts that are a nightmare for ABS.

We recommend the following PETG selections:

• PETG selection on Amazon here
• PETG range on Matterhackers here

However, PETG’s softer surface makes it prone to wear and tear from general scratching, and is therefore not an ideal material for any application that involves heavy use or that needs to retain a certain surface finish.

Additionally, PETG’s great layer adhesion has some downsides. It sticks so well that it is a poor option for printing supports, bridges, and other structures. For this reason, PETG is less of an attractive option unless you have a dual extruder 3D printer and can print a better support filament such as PVA or PLA. You should also be wary of stringing, and correct your 3D slicer settings if you notice excessive oozing.

For a more in-depth guide to PETG 3D printing:

Flexible 3D printer filaments — TPU, TPE, TPC

• Recommended extruder temperature: 220-260°C depending on the flexible filament type
• Heated bed: optional, recommended temperature 40-60°C

TPE — or Thermoplastic Elastomers — blend plastics and rubber together to create this special type of flexible 3D printer filament. These filaments are flexible and elastic — far more so than other flexible 3D printer filaments like PLA.

Flexible filaments are any material that can be easily bent out of shape, and then returns to it’s original (post printed) shape once released. These are different, but share similarities to semi-flexible, extremely durable materials like PETG and Nylon. 

Flexi filaments have various vibration dampening, impact absorbing and shape restoring properties. Excellent uses involved model car tyres (or tank tracks), bouncy objects and custom printed stress balls – but the uses are limitless. 

They’re available in different hardnesses, often referred to on the Shore D hardness scale. Lower numbers are softer, and higher are firmer materials. 

It is commonly advised when 3D printing soft material to do so at half the usual speed, at around 20-30mm/s, at least to start with. You may also want to check the extruder you use is compatible with flexible materials – as some extruder designs can cause problems, especially with softer grades of flex.

• We have a specialized article focused on TPU if you want to find out more about TPU filament.
• For TPE and other flexible filaments, we have an article explaining every type of flexible filament.

There are several different types of TPE, the most popular being TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane). These flexible 3D printer filaments are great for absorbing shocks, as well as dampening vibrations.

They also have very good heat resistance properties, making TPU and other flexible filaments perfect for creating less rigid tools that can withstand high temperatures. When printing with TPE or TPU, you’ll notice it has fairly similar characteristics to PLA.

We recommend the following flexibles:

• Range of flexible TPU filaments on Amazon
• TPU and TPC range of filaments on Matterhackers

However, TPE can be difficult to print, and considerable care must be taken to maintain precise print settings, or the print could fail. TPU and other flexibles are also prone to small imperfections on printed models through stringing and oozing.

Additionally, extra care should be taken if using a Bowden extruder, as the longer feed lengths can cause jams.

For more info:

• The best TPU and flexible filaments
• Complete guide to TPU filament 3D printing
• Guide to flexible filaments

Nylon filament (Polyamide)

• Temperature: 240-275°C, generally around 250°C
• Heated bed temperature: 90-110°C
• Does Nylon require a heated chamber: Yes

Nylon is a form of Polyamide, with Nylon filament known for being very tough, heat and impact resistant, and difficult to scratch or wear down. As a result, not only is Nylon filament used in some maker projects, but is used heavily in industrial 3D printing situations for rapid prototyping and other uses, and Nylon PA12 powder is also used in SLS 3D printers and in MJF.

This is, hands down in our opinion the most versatile printing material currently available. It’s an amazingly strong filament. Outside the 3D printing world it’s commonly used in clothing, when printed thinly its flexible (think living hinges) and when printed thick it’s got a good level of stiffness to it.

Ultimately Nylon is very durable, has a low friction coefficient (often used in low RPM gearboxes and bushings) and in our Nylon 12 blend has an increased resistance to chemical and thermal influences than the more common grades such as Nylon 6. It is these properties that make Nylon so suitable for blending with other materials to create filament types with a range of excellent benefits.

3D printing tips:

You will absolutely need a heated bed as well as a heated chamber to 3D print Nylon filament. Without these additions, Nylon will warp and parts will be rendered useless. Therefore, use a heated bed as well as an enclosure or heated chamber to keep a steady temperature maintained, further preventing curling or warping.

Additionally, use the correct build surface for Nylon filament, such as an adhesive like glue stick, or PEI sheets or Kapton tape.

Nylon is more expensive than consumer filaments like PLA, with high-quality filaments starting at around $50 per kilo. There are several different Nylon filament types, including NylonX, which is mixed with carbon fiber, and NylonG, which is mixed with glass fibers. Both blends give Nylon added strength but cost much more than standard Nylon.

We recommend the following Nylon selections:

• Nylon filament range on Amazon
• Selection of Nylon filaments on Matterhackers

Nylon is considered tougher than even ABS, owing to its higher impact resistance from its flexibility. Unlike ABS, it also does not create bad odors during 3D printing. It is mainly used for its fantastic strength, impact resistance and flexibility.

However, Nylon’s proneness to warping and curling mean you must be very careful when 3D printing. Keep precise print settings to ensure your print doesn’t warp and fail, and do not attempt to 3D print Nylon without a good heated bed and chamber.

Nylon is also very hygroscopic and requires airtight storage in a dry place or its 3D printing characteristics will drastically worsen.

For more info on Nylon:

• Best Nylon filaments and brands
• Best Nylon 3D printers
• NylonX filament guide

Support Filaments

PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol)

• Temperature: 190-210°C
• Bed temperature: max 45°C
• Adhesion: blue painter’s tape (and others suitable)

PVA is probably best known for its ability to be dissolved water, and it is therefore often used as a support material in geometrically complex prints alongside PLA. It’s used with PLA as the two materials share similar melting points and print characteristics.

It is perfect for these prints as its solubility means that leaving a print overnight in water completely removes the PVA supports, leaving no trace or blemishes that would otherwise affect the quality of the print.

We recommend the following PVA support filament selections:

• Matterhackers PVA filament selection
• Amazon PVA filament range

If necessary, PVA can also be used to print models, rather than just as a support filament. It is however not ideal for this, as like PC it absorbs moisture from the air, and any contact with water will spell doom for your part. It therefore requires 3D printer filament storage to retain its properties.

Moreover, PVA is liable to clog the 3D printer’s nozzle when printing if left hot without extruding any 3D printer filament. It’s also expensive, which may be a barrier considering it cannot be used for any product intended to be taken outside.

It’s worth considering though it’s extremely hygroscopic – that means you’ve got to keep it dry and sealed with desiccant to preserve it

For more information, here’s our full guide to PVA filament:

HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene)

• Temperature: 230-245°C
• Heated bed: required, recommended temperature 90-115°C
• Adhesion: blue painter’s tape, glue stick, and others also work well

HIPS is a dissolvable material mostly used as a support material when printing with ABS. The main advantage of using HIPS with your ABS 3D printer filament is that after printing, simply leave your model in Limonene to dissolve the HIPS supports.

It’s often regarded as just a support material, which it works as very well. However, it also works great as a standalone printing filament due to the fact it’s easy to print and generally regarded as quite strong and low warp.

In fact, it will actually print nicely as a higher impact alternative to PLA. 

HIPS is a copolymer combining the hardness of polystyrene with the elasticity of polybutadiene rubber to create a high-impact thermoplastic that’s pretty tough and strong – without the typical brittle properties. 

It’s for this reason alone we feel HIPS filament is a really underrated 3D printing material in its own right. 

As a support material, HIPS dissolves using Limonene solution – which is an easily obtained solvent that’s made from the skin of lemons. Once submerged for 24 hours, the HIPS will have dissolved and you’ll be left with the print with clean, crisp overhangs, and no evidence of any supports or any imperfections. 

Having similar properties to ABS, it’s perfect for use with a dual extruder 3D printer, and its light weight means it’s well suited to parts where cutting weight is the aim.

Moreover, HIPS is cheap, and though dissolvable in Limonene, it is still water-resistant. It’s stronger than standard polystyrene, and possesses good mechanical and strength characteristics, leading to its use in plastic signs and point of sale displays.

We recommend the following HIPS selections:

• Matterhackers HIPS range
• Dynamism HIPS range
• Amazon HIPS range

However, as with ABS, HIPS requires the use of a heated bed, and high temperatures are recommended along with a heated chamber with ventilation. HIPS 3D printer filament is liable to warp, so careful monitoring of temperature is required to avoid visible and rough looking layers.

Likewise, as with ABS it exudes strong fumes, and is guilty of clogging up the 3D printer nozzle which can waste time and material.

Read our full guide to HIPS filament here:

Composite Filaments

Wood filaments

• Extruder temperature: 180-220°C
• Heated bed temperature: optional 40-60°C
• Do you need a heated chamber or enclosure to 3D print wood? No.

Relatively new developments in 3D printing have made it possible to print beautifully finished wood models on even the most budget-friendly 3D printers!

These wood filaments are typically a mix of 70% PLA, and 30% wood elements, such as pine, bamboo, and other woods. These filaments give an authentic wooden sheen to your models, letting you create precise wood models that look almost identical to the real thing — only very close inspection will reveal the truth.

Beyond choosing the wood type like pine or birch, you can tailor your preferred wooden finish during printing. Higher temperatures will stain the wood a darker shade, with lower temperatures the opposite. However, don’t print too high — wood is flammable.

We recommend the following wood filament ranges:

• Amazon’s range of wood filaments
• Matterhackers premium wood filament range

Since it’s mostly PLA, wood filaments still print at low temperatures and with relative ease, so even low cost basic printers should be able to print without too much issue. After printing, you can finish, stain and polish your prints to create gorgeous wood-like aesthetics.

Read our full guide to wood filament printing here:

Metal filaments

• Extruder temperature: 190-220°C
• Heated bed: Optional, at 40-60°C

When we say metal filaments, we don’t mean 3D printing solid metal parts in the way industrial metal 3D printers do. Rather than being full solid metal, metal filaments use a percentage of metal powders mixed with standard filaments like PLA.

The most commonly used metal filled filaments include stainless steel, bronze, and copper. However, make sure before you buy that you are indeed buying a filament with metal powder in, rather than a metal color filament.

We recommend the following metal filament ranges:

• High quality metal filament range on Matterhackers here
• Selected metal filaments on Amazon here

Rarely used for things metals would be used for, metal filaments are mostly an aesthetic choice, creating metallic parts that can look like real bronze statues or metal cosplay features.

They’re easily printable on even standard desktop 3D printers, but you should upgrade to a hardened steel nozzle to avoid the composite filaments repeatedly wearing down your standard brass nozzles.

You can read more in our full guide to metal filaments:

Carbon Fiber filled 3D printer filament

• Recommended extruder temperature: depends on main material.

Carbon fiber filled 3D printer filaments are those which contain short fibers infused into the original filament – such as PLA or Nylon – to give it extra strength and hardiness.

Other carbon fiber-filled filaments exist, such as PETG, ABS, and PC. Markforged, as well as releasing their first metal 3D printer recently, have pioneered FDM 3D printers that use these filaments.

These extremely strong fibers mean 3D printed parts will be stronger, retain their shape better (as the fibers prevent shrinking), and best of all, lighter.

We recommend the following carbon fiber filaments:

• Matterhackers range of PLA and other composite carbon fiber filaments
• Dynamism range of premium carbon fiber composites
• Amazon range of carbon fiber filaments

However, the use of these carbon fibers within the 3D printer filaments can increase the chance of the printer nozzle clogging during printing.

Moreover, the filament itself is not suitable for all printers due to its enhanced properties and toughness – basic RepRap 3D printers or cheap 3D printers may struggle. Lastly, the filament becomes slightly more brittle with its enhanced strength, which may not always be ideal.

Carbon-reinforced Nylon 3D printing tips:

• Temperature: 260-275°C
• Bed temperature: 100-115°C
• Adhesion: Kapton tape

For more information, here’s our full guide to carbon fiber 3D printing:

Glass filaments

• PLA Glass temperature: 180-220C, heated bed optional at 40C+
• Glass-reinforced Nylon temperature: 255-275C, heated bed at 100-110C

Perhaps considered fragile by those who only know glass from easily shattered windows or drinking glasses that break when dropped on the floor.

In fact, glass fibers actually provide excellent strength and durability, and are added to standard filaments to notably improve their strength for prototyping and other industrial uses.

We recommend the following glass fiber filament range:

• Glass fiber filaments and NylonG range available on Matterhackers here

PLA glass composite filaments can be made 50% stronger, and 2x less flexible with glass additions. PLA is typically seen as brittle, with glass providing more flexibility without breaking.

NylonG, or Nylon glass composites, are also strengthened without losing Nylon’s trademark flexibility, and is used in industry for high-strength industrial prototyping and other applications.

The main benefits of this material, aside from those mentioned above,are its abrasion resistance. 

Need to print something that needs to take quite a bit of rough and tumble that’s low friction and hard-wearing? Like RC helicopter landing skids, or similar (OK, so we’re not thinking very inventively right now). This could be your go-to for tough stuff. 

Otherwise settings are similar to our standard Nylon 12.

For more information on glass filaments:

Professional 3D printer filaments

PC filament (Polycarbonate)

• Temperature: 300°C+
• Heated bed temperature: at least 90°C, recommended 120°C+
• Do you need a heated chamber or enclosure to 3D print polycarbonate? Yes
• Polycarbonate glass transition temperature: 150°C
• Adhesion: PEI sheets, glue stick

Polycarbonate filament is extremely strong, can take powerful impacts, and withstand very high heats. It also has a transparent finish that looks great.

PC is also lightweight, making it ideal for products that need to be clear, strong, resist heat, and light, and is a heavily used filament in engineering applications, as well as 3D printing sunglasses and riot gear – and even used with toughes glass to make it bulletproof.

• We have a full guide to PC filament in our complete Polycarbonate filament guide.

As a result of its toughness, not all 3D printers can handle PC filament, because your hot-end needs to run at around 260-300°C for it to print nicely.

One of the benefits of such a high printing temperature though is its thermo-stability – polycarbonate filament takes a bit of heat to soften it up. But that’s not to say it’s brittle when cold, far from it. This thermoplastic is also durable and takes quite a force to break it. 

Another interesting quality of Polycarbonate is that it is not strictly rigid but slightly bendy, meaning it can move flexibly without snapping or breaking with high tensile strength. This makes it useful in areas where flexibility is a necessity. Moreover, PC’s ability to retain its structure until around 150°C makes it ideal for use where high temperatures are involved.

We recommend the following PC filament selections:

• Range of PC filament on Amazon here
• Matterhackers range of PC filaments

However, as a result of these strong heat properties, very high temperatures are required to print the 3D printer filament. As it is difficult to prevent the rapid cooling of the part from these high temperatures, PC is very prone to warping – from small temperature deviations, or in the event of too much cooling – therefore requiring a specialized cooling chamber with heated bed.

Polycarbonate is also very hygroscopic and if not stored correctly will deteriorate as it absorbs moisture from the air. We explain how to store and dry affected filament in our PC filament guide below:

ASA (Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate)

• Temperature: 230-250°C.
• Heated bed: required, recommended temperature 90-100°C.
• Adhesion: Blue Painters Tape / Glue Stick / PEI Sheet

ASA is a 3D printer filament with good impact resistance as well as being resistant to heat and scratching. However, due to the different rubber material used to produce ASA, it is more expensive than standard 3D printer filaments.

Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate is a specialist material, which is new on the scene. It’s very similar to ABS, but with one key difference – it’s resistant to UV light. That means it won’t crack or yellow when left out in the sun over time. If you print practical outdoorsy things, or print for business this printing material is invaluable.

3D printing tips:

ASA filament otherwise has similar properties to ABS — it’s slightly denser, slightly more durable, and harder wearing. If you’d like to learn more about the differences between this and regular ABS filament, check out our comparison article.

Something to note when printing ASA though is that it needs to cool really slowly, or it can crack. This is easily solved by turning your cooling fans right down, to about 5% or 10%.

If you have an enclosed printing chamber, that’s even better – but otherwise, try keep the ambient temperature warm and no drafts and your prints will come out a dream. 

We recommend these ASA filament ranges:

• Matterhackers ASA filament range
• Amazon range of ASA filaments

In addition, this new material composition means it requires a high extruder temperature with recommended ventilation to counteract the fumes produced melting it. A heated bed is also highly recommended to prevent the warping that can be more unpredictable with ASA than some other filaments.

Read our full guide to ASA here:

PP (Polypropylene)

• Recommended extruder temperature: 220-250°C
• Heated bed: 85-95°C

PP is another semi flexible 3D printer filament like PC, and is very lightweight. It however lacks some of the strength of PC, and is therefore used mostly in low strength applications where its flexibility is needed, such as in making ropes, stationery, and in the automotive and textiles sectors. It is also a main material used in injection molding.

PP is useful in 3D printing as it is both impact resistant and fatigue resistant. This makes it perfect for parts that need to be able to absorb shocks, and its scratch resistance comes in handy here too.

We recommend the following PP filament ranges:

• Matterhackers range of PP filaments
• Dynamism Polypropylene filament range
• Range of Amazon Polypropylene filaments

However, PP lacks the strength necessary in many industries, ruling it out for many applications. It is also liable to warping during printing, and is also relatively expensive. Moreover, if you want to customize your model post print, PP is not a good option due to its low solubility for different colored dyes.

PEEK filament (Poly Ether Etherketone)

• PEEK 3D printing temperature: 360-450°C
• Heated bed: 120-160°C
• Do you need an enclosure or heated chamber when 3D printing PEEK? Yes.
• PEEK glass transition temperature: 143°C

PEEK is a very strong plastic that, due to its phenomenal thermal resistance (melts at 343C), requires extremely high temperatures to print. It’s a high grade, industrial material that offers the same strength by volume as steel, despite being 80% lighter. As a result, PEEK is seeing increased use in aerospace and automotive parts to save weight.

In addition to its use in the aerospace industry, PEEK has uses in high fashion 3D printed shoes, as well as wide use in the medical sector to create dental instruments, lightweight prosthetics, and implants as an alternative to standard metal implants. This is because PEEK doesn’t react to boiling water or steam, making it an ideal filament for areas where sterilization is required.

Absolutely not a consumer 3D printer filament, PEEK is reserved for high value-added industrial applications — though if in future prices come down it could see more day-to-day use. It is favored for its extremely high strength, fantastic temperature and chemical resistance, and low weight.

We recommend the following PEEK filament selections:

• Matterhackers premium PEEK range
• Dynamism PEKK and PEEK range

However, these advantages don’t come cheap, and PEEK is certainly far from inexpensive. Expect to pay around $500/kg, sometimes up to even $700. Moreover, it requires these very high temperatures to print, meaning that only industrial 3D printers can print it effectively, no cheap DIY 3D printer kit machines are likely to cut it.

Even small deviations in printing conditions can create imperfections in PEEK printed parts, so conditions must be kept very stable. Moreover, most desktop 3D printers do not come with hot ends that are able to 3D print PEEK, as they cannot handle the temperatures required.

For a more in-depth article on PEEK filament:

Other filaments

Cleaning Filament / Flushing Filament

• Temperature: 170-280°C+

Excuse us for getting personal, but you should be aware that carbon can build up in your hotend nozzle over time.

Now, if you print with the same material, at the same temperature, and your filament is always of a high quality – generally you shouldn’t need to worry about cleaning your nozzle as often. However, we would recommend it as a course of action periodically, especially if you’re a high-volume printer. 

Where you’re really going to see the benefits to nozzle cleaning filament though is when you change materials – especially if you’re going from a hotter printing material to a cooler temperature one.  

Let’s say you’re printing ABS at 250°C, and then take out the material to reload with PLA. PLA prints low, typically at around 180-210°C. That means, any ABS residue isn’t going to get hot enough to push out, and is going to cause friction. 

Not just that, but if you increase the heat of your hotend to 250°C to flush out the ABS with PLA, you risk cooking, or burning the PLA. Which can also clog your nozzle, so for best results, use Floss between 205-210°C to clean out PLA.

Therefore, cleaning filament works perfectly as a flushing filament to use between material changes (and once in a while even if you don’t change) – to keep your nozzle clear and blockage-free. 

What’s more, it only takes 30 seconds per clean making it a real time saver.

PMMA (Acrylic Filament)

• Temperature: 245-255°C
• Bed temperature: 100°C
• Adhesion: blue painter’s tape / glue stick

PMMA, or polymethyl methacrylate, is a hard, scratch-resistant, lightweight thermoplastic. Commonly known as acrylic, it’s well known for clarity and shatter resistance. 

Not as strong as Polycarbonate, but significantly more impact resistant than glass, PMMA filament is ideal when you require something easy to print yet with excellent translucency and scratch resistance. 

Think headlight lenses, aquariums and ice-rink protective glass as common uses for PMMA. 

In addition, PMMA can also be acetone smoothed, similar to ABS. It’s also used for lost-wax casting, as it cleanly burns away when using as a form for a cast mold.

Related articles:

• Filament calculator – how many meters of filament on a 1kg spool
• How much can you print with 1kg filament / PLA?
• The best filament dry boxes
• Best filament storage for 3D printing
• How to dry wet 3D printer filament
• How to smooth PLA
• How to acetone smooth ABS filament
• How to join or fuse filament
• Ender 3 filament buyer’s guide (and V2 / S1)

Or perhaps in short, what good is 3D printing doing for people in difficult situations now?

This article showcases how 3D printing is helping with humanitarian aid and disaster relief, emergency shelter and housing, prosthetics, and more.

3D Printing in Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief

The business of disaster relief is far more complex than it’s given credit for.

Moving massive amounts of supplies, equipment, and people both quickly and safely is an enormous logistical challenge that humanitarian professionals can literally spend their entire careers streamlining.

When any nation faces a humanitarian disaster, naturally, the immediate response will come from their own welfare and emergency services.

For wealthy nations, this level of support is usually sufficient, with floods, heatwaves, and terrorist actions usually being resolved domestically.

However, where additional aid could save lives, then international assistance is rarely turned down. For instance, the US received a massive international aid response during the wake of Hurricane Katrina, especially in New Orleans, where flaws in the city’s flood defenses caused 80% of the city to flood.

Despite the industry’s wealth of expertise, conventional deployments continue to face significant logistical challenges, leading to experiments with how 3D printing can help with humanitarian aid and other relief.

Logistical Challenges

Ideally, the level of humanitarian aid given would be determined by need. However, this is too often not the case. Instead, disaster zones that are cheaper and easier to get to are likely to receive more aid than remote ones.

Mike VanRooyen, a Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, explains the issue:

“So take for example, around the same time as the [2010] Haiti earthquake there was a massive flood in Pakistan. But it was very remote and very difficult to get to… The only people that could respond in this distant area of Pakistan for this massive flood were the major organizations that had lifting capacity.”

By comparison, Haiti, which is located close to the US mainland, never experienced issues with the amount of aid it received.

However, Haiti faced its own challenges receiving aid — with how it was managed and implemented.

Aid arriving into Haiti faced an enormous backlog. The quake damaged roads, ports, and underground petrol storage, forcing all urgent and heavy cargo through a single airport. This airport itself was also damaged, with its control tower inactive until days into the relief operation.

So, How Can 3D Printing Help?

Looking to get around these logistical challenges, a new way of delivering aid using 3D printing emerged. Rather than moving supplies to the location, and having to contend with remote deployments or issues with infrastructure damage, why not just 3D print supplies on-site?

Field Ready

Field Ready is a group of NGOs and charities with a vision to use 3D printing to innovate how humanitarian aid is delivered.

In an interview with Singularity University, Field Ready co-founder Dara Dotz explained that:

“If we were to order a shipping container full of umbilical cord clamps, pay the money to get the clamps, buy a million of them so we get them at a cheaper cost, put them in the shipping container… I mean, it can take anywhere from 18 months to three years, and it costs an exponential amount of money. And so, in this case, a small clinic could never afford that.”

Their approach is to instead deploy into these disaster zones and 3D print what is needed on-site, bypassing most of the logistical issues that come with the conventional method. And their approach has seen much success.

Field Ready’s Deployments

Field Ready are active across the world and make use of a variety of desktop 3D printers and manufacturing techniques. A notable and recent example of their impact is their continued work within Syria.

Over ten years of conflict has severely degraded the nation’s healthcare systems. A 2017 World Bank Damage Assessment stated that:

“More than half of all hospitals in the assessed cities have experienced some form of damage (completely destroyed or partially damaged) as of February 2017… Total damages to transportation across the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib are estimated to range between US$608 million and US$668 million.”

With the conflict dragging on, Syria has struggled to rebuild this infrastructure. With locals reporting to Field Ready that “more Syrians die because of a lack of healthcare facilities and equipment than all those killed during the years of violence.” 

With this in mind, Field Ready set up a workshop in the region with the intention of using 3D printing to support these damaged facilities.

Since 2020, Field Ready have been working towards adding 200 components and 35 new devices to their catalog. The catalog contains open-source designs ready to be downloaded and 3D printed.

In addition to their own manufacturing, they reached out to local partners to increase production and ultimately ensure that these devices can still be produced should Field Ready have to depart.

The merits of 3D printing’s ability to produce these parts on-demand and on-location have been proven here, especially with the additional logistical delays caused by Covid-19.

Eric James, Field Ready’s executive director noted that:

“by making these items locally, we bypass traditional supply chains and people won’t have to wait for 10 months before they can get a lifesaving device… By helping to establish a local market, we increase resilience against the shocks of future disasters. It’s practical, it’s efficient, and it saves lives.”  

Since 2020 Field Ready have reported that over 13,000 people have benefitted from their deployment, with 3D printing helping them to repair over 110 medical devices, including infant incubators, microscopes, and defibrillators.

Why Is 3D Printing Not Used More for Disaster Relief?

While these projects are promising, 3D printing still has its limitations. Most 3D printing tools are slow and cannot be used on a large scale. They also have limited function in the days immediately after a disaster.

Food, water, shelter, and medicines will be immediately needed by those affected. Most 3D printers cannot immediately print these products, and where they can, they can’t do so at scale.

For example, as an official evacuation point, around 10,000 people took shelter in New Orleans’s Louisiana Superdome the day before Katrina’s arrival. The national guard arrived with 40,000 military MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat). Even if a 3D printer could produce one meal every two minutes, it would still take over 1000 hours to print this quantity, by which time the hurricane would have long passed.

Read more: our feature story on 3D printing food.

Ultimately, 3D printing is all but guaranteed to have an expanding role within disaster relief operations, with current projects already proving its effectiveness as a logistical tool. However, with the comparatively low speed and volume of 3D printing, it’s unlikely to ever replace the need for conventional logistics.

3D Printed Emergency Shelter & Housing

3D printing has a proven ability to produce low-cost houses and building infrastructure with a fraction of the cost and speed of conventional construction, prompting continued research into the field. For example, Millebot Inc have developed a large format printer that can operate and be transported within a shipping container.

Despite this, 3D printed is rarely used to house people displaced immediately after a disaster. Instead, they are more often instead used for social programs.

This is because the 3D printers used for construction are often large, heavy, and expensive, forcing them into the same logistical challenges as conventional aid deployments. Additionally, they require constant connection to power lines to operate, something which is frequently damaged in disaster zones.

Additionally, even though 3D printed houses can now be constructed within 24 hours, this is still too slow.

105,000 homes were destroyed within 30 seconds of Haiti’s earthquake, making the most practical way of sheltering the estimated 1.5 million displaced people being the shipping of conventional emergency tents.

As if to compound this, having just seen their homes crumble around them, many Haitians refused to enter buildings being used as temporary hospitals. During an interview, Stephanie Kayden, another Director at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, explained that:

“Even though the place where we were working had buildings that were very strong… the people that we were helping were too afraid to go inside them.”

This forced the Initiative to use tents and converted trucks as operating theaters.

Despite limited use in immediate disaster responses, 3D printed housing is still used by NGOs and charities for social programs. for example, the organizations 14Trees and Thinking Huts uses 3D printing to accelerate the building of schools and homes in places where infrastructure or affordable housing is lacking.

On that note, there have been various projects aimed at 3D printing affordable housing for the homeless and vulnerable, however, few have committed to 3D printing quite as much as Austin Texas’s “Community First! Village.”

Community First! Village

Amber Fogarty, President and Chief Goodness Officer of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, the organization behind the village, explains:

“Every single neighbor that calls Community First! Village home pays rent in order to live here. We create micro-enterprise opportunities for our neighbors to earn a dignified income doing things that they love to do.”

And these enterprises are significant too. They have a car servicing business, art house, pottery operation, blacksmithing and woodworking shop, and an organic farm.

In 2018, Mobile Loaves and Fishes announced that they would be significantly expanding the village’s capacity by using 3D printing. Amber Fogerty again explains:

“We have about 230 people living in micro-homes and RVs. On Phase Two, [the 2018 announcement] we will add 300 more homes and introduce something that has never been done before: 3D printing three houses at a time.”

Working with 3D printing company ICON, the first production of houses is already complete, with six houses and a welcome center already printed.

Each home is 400 square feet, and features single bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, and porches with sweeping views of the Texas sunset.

Icon deployed its large-format Vulcan II 3D printers for the task and fed them a proprietary mix of concrete to build most of the structures.

Considering that Community First Village eventually aims to house 40% of Austin’s homeless population, the reduced cost and construction speed that ICON’s 3D printed homes offer could make that a reality.

3D Printed Prosthetics

3D printing is already used in the development of some modern prosthetics. However, what is perhaps being missed in these new developments, is 3D printing’s potential to make these limbs more accessible.

For example, New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery say a new prosthetic leg can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000.

Within, Glenn Garrison, the hospital’s director of prosthetics and orthotics also explained that “they’re probably in line with a cost of a car. It can be a pricey thing to work with.”

Read more: our full feature story on 3D printed prosthetics.

The effect is that most of the world’s population simply cannot afford all but the most rudimentary of prosthetics. This is especially true for children, who must regularly have their prosthetics replaced as they grow.

Even nations with free or subsidized health services suffer from long prosthetics waiting lists, and restrictive options when it comes to available models.

What 3D printing offers then, is the opportunity for these individuals to affordably build their own prosthetic limbs.

E-Nable

E-Nable is perhaps the most well-known of these 3D printing prosthetic communities. The concept is that volunteers will design prosthetics that can be printed on desktop 3D printers, and then make their designs open-source and available for others to use. The result is that patients looking to print their own prosthetics can simply visit E-Nable and find detailed designs and instructions on how to 3D print their own devices, as well as access to a community of people willing to support them.

In one case, E-Nable’s Yemen-based group, the “Aden Chapter,” began treating victims of the country’s civil war. Abdulla, the Chapter’s founder, explained that:

“The team spent August 2017 printing, redesigning, assembling, and reprinting for the first case… Mossa, our first recipient, 18 years old, lost his left hand by an explosive war remnant. Doctors had to amputate the injured area of the hand rather than proceeding any further medication since the health facilities were crowded and occupied by more sophisticated and serious injuries… He loved the design and gave us valuable feedback.”

E-Nable later reported that “Mossa has been using his new arm to carry objects that are up to 5kg, holding objects and cups and opening bottles. He has also been using this device to write his name!”

Mossa is an interesting case of accessibility. His issue wasn’t the price or availability of prosthetics, but simply the overwhelming pressure of Yemen’s health services. Ultimately, without 3D printing communities like E-Nable, people like him would still likely be on waiting lists.

How key is 3D printing for bettering people’s lives overall?

While that is a difficult question to answer, 3D printing’s continuing increasing adoption in building temporary homes for the disaster-hit — the father of construction 3D printing, Dr Behrokh Khoshnevis, originally came up with the idea when thinking how to help disaster-hit populations — as well as in prosthetics, building low-cost homes, and in humanitarian aid, make it a hopeful piece of the larger puzzle in raising living standards worldwide.

Right now, 3D printing’s impact is comparatively minimal, but with great advances being made, particularly in house-building, there is a lot to be hopeful about with 3D printing’s ability to do good.

This is an industry where reducing drag by a few degrees, or reducing an aircraft’s weight by a few grams, creates enormous financial savings. Perhaps infamously, it was Robert Crandall, CEO of American Airlines in the 1980s, who suggested that removing one olive from every salad served would save his airline $40,000 dollars every year.

So, 3D printing can produce these often complex structures in a way that is faster, cheaper, and potentially lighter than traditional methods. Naturally, the industry paid attention.

But we also aren’t going on holiday in completely 3D printed passenger jets just yet. So, this begs the question, just how extensively is 3D printing used within aerospace today?

The Advantages – 3D Printing and Aerospace

Like in many industries, adopting 3D printing allows manufacturers to produce complex parts faster, cheaper, and more accurately than conventional methods. But the technology isn’t suitable for everyone, with manufacturers who produce simple components, or enormous runs of products, benefitting less from 3D printing’s advantages.

This is not true of aerospace however. With the complexity of its components, and its emphasis on efficiency and saving weight, 3D printing offers significant benefits, just like in our first example.

Avio Aero

Not content with simply getting by, Avio Aero has challenged themselves to also improve and innovate upon their aircraft designs.

“Avio Aero’s challenge is to develop new technologies and applications to reduce fuel consumption & CO2 emissions, produce lighter aircraft, and achieve better performance.”

And to achieve this, they’ve turned to 3D printing.

Operating out of purpose-built factories across Europe, Avio Aero has confidently adopted 3D printing into its manufacturing process. In fact, one of their industrial plants in Cameri, Italy, was also the largest 3D printing factory in the world when it was built in 2013. It features over sixty 3D printers, and two gas atomizers to produce metal 3D printing powders in-house.

Previously, Avio Aero had manufactured their products using traditional casting, and had much to say about the benefits of switching to 3D printing.

“Products are uniform… Mechanical characteristics are better; pieces are more resistant… Manufacturing is carried out in vacuum chambers with no harmful exhaust emissions. Moreover, to make a product weighing 1 kilogram through casting, about 4 kilograms of material is needed. While only a maximum of 1.5 kilograms is used with additive manufacturing [3D printing].”

With the technology’s benefits explored, let’s take a step back and look at how it is actually incorporated into the production of aircraft.

The Design Process for Aerospace 3D Printing

Rapid prototyping is an increasingly common use of 3D printing, with many large industries making use of the technology to produce models and test runs of new products or components.

The aerospace industry differs slightly then, in the fact that 3D printing here is used throughout their entire design process, right up until and including the manufacture of the final components.

This of course includes the traditional uses of 3D printed prototypes, such as scale models. But what about those less common pieces more specific to the industry?

Surrogates?

One such area is that of 3D printed surrogate parts. These parts are cheap, but highly accurate replicas of very expensive aircraft components. These surrogates act as placeholders for aerospace training rooms, or as placeholders on a production assembly line. For example, during the production process of Bell helicopters, a surrogate wiring conduit is used when assembling the aircraft’s tail. Technicians will use these surrogates to test all the wiring paths before the real piece is installed.

This specific case saw significant improvements too, with Bell claiming that these 3D printed surrogates were produced in only two and a half days; far quicker than their previously used aluminum surrogates, which took six weeks to build.

With such savings, the question could again be asked, why stop at surrogate parts? Well, the answer is that they haven’t. In fact, modern passenger jets probably already feature more 3D printed parts than you may expect.

Integrating 3D Printed Parts Into Aircraft 

Currently, commercial aircraft either already feature, or have the option to replace many of their components with, 3D printed counterparts.

Nozzles, control consoles, aircraft doors, and even headlights can currently be 3D printed. A variety of 3D printing techniques and materials are used too, allowing the industry to produce parts out of metal, resin, nylon, and even composites. For example, material jetting, a technique where the material is applied in layers and cured with UV light, can be used to create aircraft headlights.

Custom 3D printing manufacturer Hubs (formerly 3D Hubs) even released a list of recommended materials and use applications specifically for 3D printing aerospace components.

Although this is an exciting development, it’s worth being tempered with the fact that 3D printing is not currently the most effective way to produce entire aircraft. This is for two reasons.

First, and perhaps most simply, not all aircraft parts can currently be 3D printed. This is especially true for more complex mechanical components.

Additionally, although 3D printing has proven itself to be invaluable when producing low-to-medium level production runs of components, the technology struggles to keep up when dealing with massive volumes. In these cases, conventional construction methods either outpace, or aren’t significantly behind the production speed of industrial 3D printers, casting doubt over the benefits of completely retooling.

This doesn’t mean that 3D printing hasn’t seen an unprecedented level of integration however, with some of the biggest names in aviation standing behind the technology

Boeing & GE Adopting 3D Printing in Aviation

GE Aviation’s GE9X engines are currently the largest commercial jet engines available today. In each engine, more than 300 3D printed parts are used. In addition to the cost and weight benefits, 3D printing also allowed the company to implement otherwise impossibly complex designs into the engine.

In a marketing video, GE Aviation claimed that “you’ll also use advanced manufacturing techniques like 3D printing to build components that were quite simply impossible to make until now.”

The use of 3D printing here, in addition to their own engineering, means that not only is the GE9X the largest jet engine available, but it is also the most efficient! 

The engine was developed specifically for Boeing’s new 777x aircraft, set to be introduced to their fleet in 2024. After successfully completing its first flight in 2020, Boeing described their new aircraft as being:

“The world’s largest and most efficient twin-engine jet, unmatched in every aspect of performance. With new breakthroughs in aerodynamics and engines, the 777X will deliver 10 percent lower fuel use and emissions and 10 percent lower operating costs than the competition.”

Although we can only speculate for now, the achievements 3D printing has been able to bring to this engine, surely indicates its continued adoption throughout the industry.

Airbus & The Future Of 3D Printed Aircraft?

Although we’re not quite ready to produce 3D printed passenger jets just yet, Airbus’s recent projects have also left some speculating as to whether 3D printing could soon bring about sci-fi levels of innovation to the industry.

Despite being slow to begin using the technology, Airbus is now one of the boldest advocates for 3D printing within the industry. Their A350 XWB airframe now features over one thousand 3D printed parts, including fully 3D printed landing gear brackets.

However, what is perhaps most exciting, is their eVTOL (electric take-off and landing) vehicles. Or, to put it another way, their flying taxis.

3D Printed Flying Taxis

The CityAirbus project vehicles are concept demonstrators. Airbus’s aim is to revolutionize urban mobility by moving road traffic from the ground and into the sky.

On the project’s website, Airbus states that:

“The idea for a compact ‘flying taxi’ first came from our desire to take city commuting into the air in a sustainable way… We are on a quest to co-create an entirely new market that sustainably integrates urban air mobility into the cities while addressing environmental and social concerns.”

And progress seems to be going well, with their first-generation vehicle successfully completed its first autonomous flight in 2020.

The vehicles feature no pilots, instead being remotely controlled by what will eventually be a city-wide air traffic controller.

Interestingly, Airbus has not widely released full details of how their CityAirbus drones are produced. However, this hasn’t stopped strong speculation that the CityAirbus drones make heavy use of 3D printing in their design.

Notably, Castor, a company that provides software solutions for industrial 3D printing manufacturers, reported that not only were the CityAirbuses 3D printed, but that they were also produced in partnership with Local Motors Group.

And not without cause. 

Airbus is indeed partnered with Local Motors, with both companies even hosting the Airbus Cargo Drone Challenge in 2016. Here, entrants could enter cargo drone designs, with the winning design being given the chance to be manufactured.

Additionally, Local Motors specializes in 3D printed vehicle manufacturing. In fact, they are best known for their “Olli” self-driving 3D printed car. Much like CityAirbus, Olli was conceived out as a desire to produce more accessible and sustainable ways of getting around urban environments.

Ultimately though, these parallels will remain as speculations until Airbus reveals otherwise. What this project definitely does show us however, is that 3D printed passenger vehicles do hold the attention of the aerospace industry’s biggest players, and that 3D printing and aerospace are a burgeoning match made in the skies.

However, 3D body scans are far from solely for vain purposes. As the technology grows and evolves, we’re finding more and more applications for 3D body scanners: from recreational uses, to help with medical diagnoses. Nowadays, it’s even possible to use these 3D body scans for hitting your fitness goals.

Here we’re going to look at what 3D body scanners are, how they work, and what exciting applications they have.

What is a 3D Body Scanner?

3D body scanners are chambers or handheld camera-like devices that scan your entire body. You may recognize these machines if you’ve been through airport security in recent years.

Much like x-rays, but far less invasive, they take detailed scans of the outline of your body, including your clothes. For security purposes, they check for abnormalities in clothing fits to see if anything nefarious is hidden or tucked away. For fitness, they’re used to measure body shape and calculate something similar to a BMI index.

Unlike x-rays, metal detectors, or pat-downs, 3D body scanners simply require you to stand still while a scan renders your shape – including outline and depth – into what’s called a point cloud.

These point clouds are like 3D models the likes of which you may get using a handheld 3D scanner on a smaller object, but on a larger and often more accurate scale. Point clouds are used instead of traditional photographs because they’re more accurate in determining the depth of a body as well as highlighting any surrounding or anomalous objects.

We also have a buyer’s guide for the best 3D scanners in every price range

Full 3D body scanners are still relatively new technology, at least as practical tools. This, alongside the large and detailed nature of these 3D body scanners, means they are currently only used in industrial and professional areas. As the technology continues to develop and be further understood, newer and more practical uses are uncovered.

Because they are relatively recent, many people ask just how accurate full 3D body scanners are, a concern deepened by their impressive speed. Most professional scanners are accurate in measuring a body structure to a 1% margin of error, provided the scans are uninterrupted and performed without any outside variables like harsh lighting or dirty lenses.

Applications of 3D Body Scanners

Due to how new full 3D body scanning technology is, its applications are still being researched and discovered. However, 3D body scanners are already being used in many fields for a variety of purposes.

Body Scans for Security

As mentioned above, 3D body scanners are being used in many airport security areas across the world. The point clouds created by full 3D body scans detect a person’s depth and anything they’re wearing or carrying

This is used in security terminals and some government buildings to detect hidden items like weapons, liquids, or anything else that the security personnel should be alerted to. This is good not only for said personnel, but also for the public.

X-rays and pat-downs, while still an occasionally necessary part of the security process, are an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience. Body scanners, however, only need you to stand still while a set of scanners rotate around you, causing no more discomfort than simply raising your arms for a few seconds.

Because these scans produce a 3D body image in a matter of seconds, they are far faster and more comfortable than older security measures.

Body Scans for Fitness

The concept of a home- or doctor-measured BMI have been somewhat controversial due to their inability to take outlying size or age differences into account. This often leads to perfectly healthy people being misdiagnosed as overweight.

Full 3D body scans are used to determine fitness regimes and exercise routines by taking a person’s body fat and muscle percentage, as well as their posture and superficially visible bone structure before comparing the data to their height and age; determining a more realistic and accurate measure of a person’s physical needs and progress towards a healthier body.

For personal use, full 3D body scans are much more reliable than scales, which don’t take the difference between muscle and fat into account, much less your weight. With a 3D body scan, which can be done either professionally or at home, you’ll get a detailed 3D image of your body which includes all of the measurements you’ll need to decide on your future health routines.

These measurements include body ratios between the waist, hip, and thigh, as well as a detailed understanding of your BMI. You will also be able to rotate and examine specific parts of your full body scan for insight into what you could call ‘problem areas’.

Those of you familiar with the similarly used Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans will be happy to know that full 3D body scans are faster, more comfortable, far less invasive, and don’t require you to wear a hospital gown.

However, as DEXA scans are used for internal analysis to get a clearer image of bone structure, using both DEXA scans and full body 3D scanners in tandem could open new doors for effective and personalized roads to physical fitness.

Some scanners will even perform a risk assessment in general posture and leg favoring, which are often unconscious health risks that many of us overlook in our day-to-day lives.

Medical Applications of 3D Body Scans

Like dental scanners, 3D body scanners provide an excellent way for medical professionals to diagnose problems like scoliosis and create molds and medical tools for corrective procedures. Full body scans can be kept on file and compared over time to evaluate progress on things like physical therapy, posture realignment, and broken bones.

What’s more, these scans can also be used to measure out fittings for prosthetics, casts, and orthopedic aids for joints. The speed and accuracy of these scans are not the only benefit, as the rendered models can be converted into a 3D printable format to make corrective orthopedic casts and aligners.

We also have a feature story on 3D printing in the medical industry

These scans are also useful for elective surgeries, as plastic surgeons and dermatologists can also use them to note problem areas and localize treatments and surgeries for aesthetic enhancing procedures.

As mentioned before, such studies will also come in handy for patients who need to lose weight or focus on specific areas that may be causing them pain.

In addition, 3D body scans can also eliminate incorrect diagnoses faster by ruling out certain problems. Lower back pain is a common symptom of testicular cancer, for example, and a quick physical scan could help in a faster diagnosis by showing how posture and superficially visible bone structure are not the root causes of the pain.

3D Body Scans for Fashion

The time-honored tradition of being measured for a suit may be an old and often familiar custom for many, but only really the first time. Unless you happen to know your tailor well, tailored fittings can be an annoying and time-consuming process.

Because of the accurate scans, measurements for suit and dress fittings are produced in a matter of seconds, giving tailors and seamsters the information they need to get anyone runway-ready in no time.

Read our feature story on 3D printed high fashion

We also have a feature story more generally on 3D printed clothes

Body Scans for Scientific Research

Scientific research uses control groups and comparative studies to show the differences in things like disease symptoms, physical conditions, treatment methods, and lifestyle consequences.

By taking 3D body scans of a wide range of people of various body types and physical fitness, such comparative studies can be used to determine the best and most efficient procedures and treatments for many medical conditions like back pain, vitamin deficiencies, and even better support regimes for pregnant people.

On a broader scale, collecting such body scans add up to a more accurate average, furthering the potential for research to answer more fundamental questions about our physiology and how our bodies function or should function.

3D Selfies

Probably the most fun use for 3D body scanners is the prospect of a 3D selfie.

The models created by a full-body scan can be sent to a 3D printer to make mini figurines that look just like you!

We also have a ranking of the best 3D printers for miniatures

By exporting the files into standard CAD software, you can make statuettes resembling your likeness to a great degree. From mini ornaments for nativity-esque tableaus to toys for the little ones, it’s hard to say no to having a tiny printed you made from an impressively accurate scan.

Imagine a wedding cake decorated with an almost exact replica of the bride and groom, or a small version of you in that special occasion outfit that you can hold in your hand. With 3D body scanning for 3D printing, these are very much achievable. With food 3D printers, you can even make an edible you!

Can I Get a 3D Body Scanner?

You may be wondering if you can simply use any 3D scanner or photogrammetry app to perform the same functions. While you could for the purposes of 3D printing, the accuracy in most of these apps would be too low to pick up on the unique differences in physiology.

This means that while you could simply scan yourself with a 3D scanner app, you won’t get the detail needed for fitness or health purposes that the point cloud scans and highly accurate 3D body scanner results will deliver.

We also have a guide to the best 3D scanner apps for your smartphone — most are free!

With all of the great uses listed above, you’re likely wondering if you can get – or at least access – a full-body 3D scanner for yourself. Here we’re going to look at some options for such scanners that you can access at home.

Naked Labs 3D Body Scanner

• Price: $1,395

The Naked Labs scanner is probably the most affordable full 3D body scanner on the market, and is known as the premier in at-home body scanners.

The setup comes with a full-length mirror equipped with cameras, and a scale that you stand on. This scale will slowly rotate as the cameras in the mirror perform a full-body scan. This scan takes your height, posture, and clothing into account and delivers a surprisingly accurate model.

The first scan will provide you with a good starting point, but Naked is designed to be used over time to determine a more accurate comparative model to tell you your body fat percentage, giving how a better idea of how to manage it in a way that suits your fitness goals.

Einscan Pro 2X Plus

• Price: $6,695 — Available on Amazon here / Available on Dynamism here

Einscan has a pedigree in handheld scanners, and their upgraded Einscan Pro 2X Plus is capable of acting as a handheld 3D body scanner for home use. While accurate and lightweight, a full-body scan using the device will need two people.

The person being scanned will need to remain as still as possible, like posing for a portrait, as another person runs the scanner over them. Fortunately, the radius of the scanner is wide enough that this process shouldn’t take too long at all.

For those of you with limited space who don’t need a new full-length mirror in their bathrooms, the Einscan Pro 2X Plus is the way to go for those who want to make accurate and easy to render 3D body scans.

Styku

• Price: Variable. Quotes available on their website here.

One of the fastest 3D body scanners on the market, Styku is on the more high-end professional services than consumer scanners you can buy on the market.

In a matter of seconds, Styku promises to produce a full, in-depth body scan for fitness purposes, measuring body fat, muscle, and BMI in a model you can rotate and view at your leisure.

The easy-to-use UI and instantly generate reports help you plan caloric intake and exercise goals to reduce fat, build muscle, or just generally improve physical fitness.

There’s also the option to compare your results and progress with your peers to share advice, though the process is privacy-focused as standards, so your intimate scans won’t be uploaded to any server for all to see, don’t worry.

Styku uses infrared to generate the body scan, meaning it’s perfectly safe for pregnant people to use.

Twinstant Mobile Full Body Scanner

• Price: $29,995

The Twinstant Full Body Scanner looks like something out of Star Trek, but it is exactly what the name indicates.

Twinstant is closer to a 3D photograph studio than a medical- or fitness-oriented scanner, and prides itself on the highly detailed colors, automatic and even light adjustment, and high-resolution detail.

Ideal for things like family portraits or rendering software for personal projects like videogames or media projects, Twinstant is also very easy to use with a simple UI that even the technologically illiterate should be able to use without too much difficulty.

While the price tag may scare most people off, they do offer a variety of payment plans from only $299 a month with a one-year guarantee included.

Other articles you may be interested in:

• The best 3D scanners
• The best DIY 3D scanners
• The best low-cost 3D scanners
• Top 3D scanner apps for iOS and Android
• Structured light 3D scanning vs laser scanning
• Best professional 3D scanners

You could be forgiven for thinking that 3D printing’s ascendancy spells the end for more traditional manufacturing methods. However, that’s not the case, and there will always be an irreplaceable place in the industry for methods like CNC.

But which is better: CNC or 3D printing? There’s no right answer, but here we break down both 3D printing and compare them over each main area of use.

Part 1: CNC vs 3D Printing: What’s the Difference?

In the short-run production of 3D products and rapid prototyping, there are two competing technologies: CNC and 3D printing. Both can produce an identical part, but they both do so differently.

CNC

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) is the more traditional manufacturing method. It uses computer-controlled tools and commands to produce 3D objects.

Using a 3D design, CNC starts with a solid block of material called a blank, and uses a variety of tools to remove material to produce the final shape. This can be through milling, cutting, lathing, or using water or laser cutters.

CNC tools can operate through multiple axes, and can produce a range of attractive finishes with many different materials. It is also a multi-scale technology, capable of effectively manufacturing single or small-line products as well as producing identical, large-scale parts for the market.

3D Printing

3D printing also begins with a 3D CAD design, but produces the part in a very different way. Slicer software deconstructs the design into hundreds of layers. Material is then deposited onto the printer bed one layer at a time, gradually building the design.

There are a range of different 3D printing technologies, each compatible with different materials. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), also known as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), is the most popular method, where a plastic filament is heated until it melts, and then deposited to form the final design.

FDM is most commonly used with polymers like PLA and ABS, the same materials used in resin-based technologies such as Stereolithography (SLA) where light beams cause monomers to join together to form structures, and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), where high-powered lasers fuse plastic together.

Similar to SLS is Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), which does the same, but for metal.

3D printing is capable of working not just with polymers, but metals, carbon fiber, and new techniques are being developed for printing glass and paper.

These differences in production methods show why alternative names such as Additive Manufacturing and Subtractive Manufacturing are often used.

Subtractive Manufacturing

CNC is often referred to as Subtractive Manufacturing due to the fact that it removes material from a larger block. Various tools remove excess material from the larger mass through cutting, milling, lathing, and other methods. The overall quantity is gradually reduced until the final 3D part is left. This subtraction of material gives CNC this name.

Additive Manufacturing

Conversely, 3D printing does the exact opposite. The process begins with no material present, but layers are gradually added to form the final structure. The deposition of material, adding to the starting quantity, is where this term comes from.

CNC vs 3D Printing: The Industry War

As 3D printing’s popularity increases, it is increasingly being incorporated into many high-performance industries. It is rare to find an industry that uses one or the other nowadays, rather a combination of the two. As many in the industry say, it is ‘and’ rather than ‘or’.

Both are primarily prototyping technologies. Which is better is dependent on the individual project. Certainly, for complex parts, 3D printing’s additive process means it is capable of producing more complex parts with more intricate geometry, and can even add color. The reduced waste is also a big factor when manufacturing using expensive materials like metal.

However, CNC methods are far better for functional prototypes. Parts for heavy industries like construction, for example, that must be rigorously tested before use are better made using CNC. CNC is also capable of working with much harder materials than 3D printing, producing a better finish in the process. However, it is far more expensive to manufacture this way.

While it is also difficult to say which is better suited to use in a particular industry, both CNC and 3D printing have their own set of benefits and drawbacks that individual companies take into consideration. They often use each technology for different things, making it difficult to make a like-for-like comparison.

However, here are a few industries that use both methods, and why they use them.

Aerospace

Aerospace is perhaps the biggest industry to embrace 3D printing to date. There is a near endless list of considerations to take into account in the production of aircraft, and this is why CNC and 3D printing are both used extensively.

Among the chief concerns for designers is reducing weight. This exponentially reduces costs through lower fuel consumption. A famous study by United Airlines found that simply using lighter paper in their in-flight magazine saved 643,000 liters of fuel in a year across their fleet, equivalent to $290,000. They also found that the reduced weight of ending duty free sales on board saved a further $2.3 million annually.

This is why the incorporation of 3D printing has been pursued. Low-volume, highly complex parts like brackets for sensors and landing gear can be made much lighter through 3D printing, which has a huge impact on the cost of each flight. And 3D printing has allowed plastics such as PEEK to find a useful place in aircraft manufacturing too.

We also have a ranking of the best PEEK and Ultem 3D printers

On the other hand, CNC methods are preferred for more high-volume parts like anti-lock brakes, door hatches and airflow valves, which can be produced quickly and in higher quantities.

Military

Again, much like in aerospace, the distinction in the military applications of CNC and 3D printing is that CNC is preferable for mass-produced parts, whereas 3D printing is used for short-line produced parts.

Aside from producing plane parts, 3D printing is being adopted by the military to produce drone components, belt buckles, ammunition boxes, and there are several exciting projects that have recently become reality.

In July 2020, the United States Navy launched Optionally Manned Technology Demonstrator (OMTD), the first submarine to have an entirely 3D printed hull. It was not only cheaper and stronger than comparable vessels due to the reduced number of panels, but reduced production time from 5 months to under 6 weeks.

Yet, CNC is still a popular manufacturing method for the military, primarily in the production of firearms. An invaluable tool for soldiers, and one that requires enormous trust, mass producing weapons components and bullets to the highest possible tier of accuracy is paramount.

Guns and ammunition need to be highly mass produced, and well enough that they can be reliably used in a war zone. CNC is preferable as it has a much higher production speed and capacity than 3D printing.

Read more in our feature story on 3D printed guns

Robotics

There are two key elements to the production of robotics: the skeleton, and the electronics. 3D printing is now almost ubiquitously used for the former, and CNC entirely for the latter.

The metal framework and plastic or metal exterior used in some of the most advanced robotic projects currently in operation are almost entirely made using 3D printing.

For more information, check out our feature on 3D Printed Robotics

3D printing allows for developers to produce parts with a minute degree of accuracy which improves the overall efficiency of the machine and gets the best results.

On the other hand, the electronics powering the devices are produced through CNC machining, as 3D printing is incapable of manufacturing individual circuit components, let alone entire circuits. The wires and motors are also machined traditionally for the same reason. However, new 3D printing technologies are emerging for producing 3D printed circuit boards.

CNC vs 3D Printing: Which is better?

Equipment and Material Cost

This is the hardest single area to assess because of the variety in machines, brands and quality that you are going to find. Generally speaking, 3D printers are on average cheaper than equivalent CNC machines, which is remarkable considering the relative infancy of the 3D printing industry.

However, the materials are much cheaper in their raw form than those engineered for use in 3D printing. Many 3D printing filaments, such as ABS and PP, suspend the material in resin which inflates the price. Depending on the polymer, a filament could cost 10 times more than the raw material per kilogram.

The same is also true for metals, especially metal wires designed for use in newer metal 3D printing techniques like Directed Energy Deposition (DED), and the metal powders used in DMLS. Adapting a material for use in 3D printing is far more expensive than the raw material used for CNC manufacturing.

Production Cost

Assuming that you have the machine already, there are a few factors that determine the production cost of CNC versus 3D printing. Energy, labor, material cost and material waste all affect this. Luckily, 3D printing giant Stratasys have conducted a useful study to compare.

Stratasys manufactured two pairs of items: a pocket tray, and an industrial robotic adaptor. They manufactured identical parts, one using 3D printing, the other using CNC.

They found that while the material cost was higher for 3D printing, the labor costs were so low that the finished product was 60% cheaper for the tray, and 30% cheaper for the adaptor.

Production Speed

The flip side of the study is that the production time for CNC was vastly shorter than with 3D printing. The tray had a total production time of 2.3 hours with 3D printing, but only 1.3 hours with CNC.

The robotic adaptor was a similar story, with 3D printing producing the part in 3.8 hours, with CNC only taking 2.5 hours. CNC evidently has the edge when it comes to speed, yet 3D printing triumphs in cost.

However, it is widely acknowledged that this is for simpler, less complex parts. For parts with more intricate and complicated designs, 3D printing makes up that lost ground.

Production Capacity

CNC milling has an edge over 3D printing when it comes to production capacity, both in terms of scale and part size.

CNC is the method of choice for manufacturers who need a steady and reliable production flow on a larger scale. 3D printing is not capable of operating at those levels under the current limitations.

In addition, 3D printers have much smaller build volumes than CNC machines, which can be designed to produce much larger parts.

Ease of Use

3D printing is recognized as the easier of the two technologies to use, especially for the less knowledgeable. Both rely on 3D modeling software to produce product designs, but 3D printers manufacture the part automatically, whereas CNC machines require attention and experience to operate effectively.

While 3D printing certainly comes with its own unique set of pitfalls that have to be overcome, getting a high-quality product with an ideal finish is comparatively easier with additive manufacturing.

Part Complexity

3D printing is by far the superior technology when it comes to part complexity. Additive manufacturing is capable of making structures with high accuracy, and is far superior when it comes to the manufacture of parts with complex geometry.

By comparison CNC is less adept at this. While it is capable of making incredible accurate and can repeatedly produce complex parts, it does not have the same skills as 3D printing at producing parts with complex geometry.

Materials

CNC has the edge when it comes to diversity of materials. 3D printing is currently able to print directly only metal and plastics, whereas CNC is workable with metal, plastic, acrylic, machining wax, modeling foam and even wood.

It should also be noted, however, that while 3D printing has a smaller range of compatible materials, it is far more efficient at using them.

Versatility

Versatility is measurable mainly by how quickly the technology can be adjusted from one design to another. And in that sense, 3D printing is better than CNC.

When changing designs with CNC machining, you have to get through an arduous retooling process and adjust your equipment based on the next project. There is no need for this with 3D printing. The printer is capable of printing any new design instantly.

Conclusion: CNC vs 3D Printing: Which is Better?

Overall, it is difficult to say whether CNC or 3D printing is better as they both excel at different things. Broadly, CNC is quicker but more expensive, 3D printing is slower but cheaper.

When choosing which design to use for your own process, it is vitally important to assess what kind of production you are looking to establish. If you are looking to print dozens or hundreds of identical parts a day, then CNC is by far the clear choice. If instead you have a more limited run planned, or your part is more complex in its design, then 3D printing is for you.

Other articles you may be interested in:

• Best 3-in-1 3D printers – with CNC and laser
• How 3D printing is used within the military
• Best metal 3D printers
• 3D printing in the oil and gas industry
• 3D printed wind turbine projects

3D bioprinting technology is still relatively new, but it’s already being applied in the real world. In 2019, one of the first papers was published on the applications of 3D printing living skin — even if it was only referred to as ‘an easy Band-Aid.’

The world of biology is complex, and researchers are only now traversing the many hurdles that come with 3D bioprinting, and with the ability to use 3D printed skin.

Although still far from use in everyday medicine, this article will explain how 3D printing skin works, how 3D printed human skin research could potentially help burn victims in the future, and how long it will likely be until we can 3D print skin to help in future medical situations.

We also have a feature story on 3D printed organs and bioprinting

Or, you can read our feature story on medical 3D printing

What Is 3D Skin Printing?

3D skin printing is the ability to print human skin with a 3D bioprinter. Due to new advances in modern 3D printing technology, we are beginning to develop technologies to 3D print human skin from real living cells. The way this works isn’t simply about patching up, but making working human skin that acts as natural skin does.

While a band-aid is a decent temporary fix, 3D printed skin for grafts and cosmetic surgeries come from the manipulation of different cells to form the dermis and epidermis. Like stem cells, these cells will do what they are taught or ‘programmed’ to do, with the hopes of eventually making artificial human skin that can communicate with the vascular system and work like human skin as seamlessly as possible.

Initially, the researchers could only print a type of bonding agent that was compatible with human skin. While this acted as a barrier to prevent infection and aid with the healing process, it wasn’t able to directly contribute to the restructuring of cells like real skin would.

The answer to this was to make 3D printed skin featuring working blood vessels that would act as human skin in the same way a standard graft would. To do this, they would need to take biological compatibility into account to reduce the chance of rejection by the body’s immune system.

A functioning vascular system is integral to a successful graft as it aids the healing process by coordinating with natural skin, providing an extension to already-working biological processes rather than simply providing a protective cover.

Huge leaps have been made in 3D printed skin to help with smaller wounds and ulcers, especially in diabetic patients for whom healing can be much slower. However, 3D printed tissue is not yet at a stage to help with larger, more severe injuries like burns that can cause deeper nerve damage.

This is because the deeper, more complex nervous system is much more difficult to recreate in a lab.

What Does This Mean for Patients Today?

Although 3D printing has advanced phenomenally since its debut in the late 1980s, 3D bioprinting is still not commonly used. This is due to the difficulty of mimicking every part of a human organ or tissue, and the expense and time it currently takes to grow even the most basic parts of bioprinted organs.

Trials are still underway, and while the research has seen many breakthroughs, 3D printed skin and tissue is neither ethically nor financially viable for regular use outside of research centers and departments.

3D Printed Skin for Surgery

In the last few years, research into 3D printed skin has opened up new potential applications across a number of different industries, from medical to cosmetic.

One of the main potential applications for 3D printed skin is skin grafts for burn victims. If skin cannot be grafted from the same patient, skin grafts need to come from donors. Donor skin can be scarce and hard to find in good time.

Due to the urgency of many skin injuries, the wait time for a donor can be the difference between life and death.

The successes of using 3D printed skin on mice was achieved through restructuring the artificial skin to incorporate working vascular systems. This has shown that similar processes can theoretically be applied to humans, reducing the need for donors and allowing for emergency surgeries to be performed sooner.

However, as of now the lack of viable technologies and methods to restructure a working nervous and vascular system in humans means that these are still just theories. 3D printed skin for grafts is not yet possible for serious injuries such as severe burns.

It’s not all good news, however. The negative side effects of 3D printed skin can be off-putting for many people.

Skin grafts from 3D printing have been known to grow hair after application, which, especially if you’re female, can be frustrating. They may also differ in color to a person’s skin tone.

However, tailor-made 3D bioprinters are always being fine-tuned. In fact, researchers at the University of Toronto developed a handheld 3D bioprinter which can be used for smaller, hard-to-reach injuries. This shows motions are still being made to improve the 3D printing process for medical applications.

Despite its power, this new handheld bioprinter is small in size and weighs less than a kilogram, and requires minimal additional training for medical professionals to use.

The durability of 3D printed skin is often discussed, though any concerns are often alleviated by trial results showing that 3D printed skin is just as durable as its natural counterpart — as long as it is applied correctly.

3D Skin Printing For Cosmetics

3D printed skin also has a variety of uses in the cosmetic world. 3D printed tissue has the potential to make animal and human trials a thing of the past by eliminating the need for live animal testing.

Companies like L’Oreal have sought to include bioprinting in the manufacture of tissues and even human hair for testing and transplants. The results have seen breakthroughs in Columbia University via the successful 3D printing of functioning hair follicles by mimicking how skin operates in relation to hair, thus closely mimicking human skin.

Read more: our full feature story on 3D printing hair

How Effective is 3D Printed Skin?

In terms of 3D printing of human skin, technology is yet to advance to the point of being used practically in hospitals. The world of bioprinting has vast technological and biological applications that could soon become mainstream.

The main issue is cost. Depending on the materials used, 3D printing can be an expensive venture. Like any medical technologies, 3D printed skin must be top quality to be both functional and safe. And so no expense can be spared.

3D printed skin has a long way to go before it becomes a valuable asset in everyday life. With the viable applications of 3D printed hair follicles in what’s being called ‘hair cloning’, we may not be too far away from being able to 3D print and clone functioning human skin.

Future Possible Applications For 3D Printed Skin

In addition to the clear medical uses as well as cosmetic and beauty benefits, there could be many more uses for 3D printable skin in the future.

Theoretically, 3D printed skin – especially with handheld devices – have important implications for field medics, especially as the technology grows and becomes more effective in treating burns (which account for roughly 30% of soldiers’ injuries).

3D printed skin could also herald good news for cosmetic surgeries and gender reassignments, which often use skin from other parts of the body to compensate for bodily reconstruction.